The Evolution Of Love
by The Open-Eyed Day Dreamer
Summary: Naruto and Hinata start to walk down the path of love. First becoming friends, best friends, and then much more. They will run into some tests to see if they are worthy of one another. Will they be together, or fall apart? Smart and Strong Naruto: Character's are Kishimoto's, NOT MINE! ON A LONG TERM HIATUS. ( WILL DISCONTIUNE&UP FOR ADOPTION IF I DON'T GET BACK TO IT IN A WEEK.)
1. The Beginning

**The Evolution of Love**

The Beginning

It started as a warm sunny day in the Hidden Leaf's Konohagakure; the birds were singing and chirping towards one another, the rivers calm and tranquil, and the people bustling down the road with high spirits of buying and selling the things that need and desire.

Who knew it could turn into a living hell in a matter of seconds.

"HAHA! You'll never catch me! I'm too fast for you old guys!" A blonde blur stated as it started to leap around Konoha.

A few other blurs started to chase after the blonde one. "Uzumaki Naruto! Get back here and face your punishment for defacing the Hokage Monument!"

The blonde young lad named Uzumaki Naruto (age 13) just grinned at the shinobi who were chasing him. "Aww c'mon! You guys have got to admit that the Hokage's do look better that way!"

If you could see Naruto's… art of the Leaders of Konoha's faces, you could see that he had made them look like circus clowns.

"C'mere you little snot! This'll teach ya to mess with the Leaf's sacred monument!" A shinobi said as he tried to grab Naruto, only for the blonde to slip away from his grasp.

"Gotta catch me first! Dattebayo!" Naruto then jump into an alleyway down below and started to cackle triumphantly.

"C'mon men! Let's get that brat!" One ninja yelled to the others.

The rest of the "Naruto Retrieval Squad" all pumped their fists into the air, cheering on the idea of capturing Konoha's pariah once and for all. The shinobi all jumped down the alleyway where their objective had gone, and started to chase after his tracts. But as soon as they left, the fence that was to their left suddenly shimmered until it was uncovered to reveal a snickering blonde boy staring at the ninjas' retreating backs.

Naruto laughed and started to run the opposite directions of the Jōnin ninjas, feeling a sense of victory overwhelming his body.

But as Naruto ran into the main road of Konohagakure, he couldn't help but notice the reactions of the villagers when they saw him. They all whispered amongst themselves while giving him dirty looks, the ones who were walking would always walk far from him or get out of his way if he would ever cross paths with them.

"Hey, is that him?" One villager whispered to another.

"Yes, it's the demon child."

"I heard _it_ nearly wiped out the Leaf."

"Really? Then why are the letting it run free?"

"I don't know. But they need to hurry up and get rid of it."

"I heard it's training to be a ninja!"

"What, no way!"

"Well, if it does become a ninja, I hope it dies on a mission."

"Good riddance is what I say."

Naruto closed his eyes tightly shut and ran faster to get away from the villagers hurtful words. He didn't understand why the villagers hated him so much, why they always gave him those judging looks. Why was he treated this way? Why was he always scorned for every action he did? Naruto asked himself these questions every day, but he'd never have an answer.

The blonde ran up the stairs to his apartment, opened the door, and slammed it shut. He slid down the door until he sat and brought his knees up to his chest.

"Why…" The boy croaked out. "Why do they look at me like that…?"

As usual, the lone Uzumaki had gotten no answer.

_Sasuke…_ Naruto thought about the last Uchiha who was the number one Rookie in the Academy, his class, and his bitter rival. _He's just like me; he has no family, no friends, but he's treated with respect! But me…_ Naruto brought hugged his knees closer to his chest. _Me… I'm just treated like dirt..._

Naruto then sighed and stuffed his face into the crook of his arm, sulking about today's events and sulking for the possibility of tomorrows'.

* * *

THE NEXT DAY

Naruto was making his way over to Konoha's only ninja Academy to get ready for another boring day of Umino Iruka's (age 27) boring lectures. Naruto was wearing his usual garb which consisted of a black shirt with a large red swirl in the middle, orange pants, green goggles placed securely on his forehead, and blue unisex ninja sandals.

The Uzumaki yawned loudly. "Oh boy, another day of Iruka-sensei's stupid lectures! This is going to be a long day."

As Naruto was closing in on the Academy, he eyes caught something on the corner of his eyes. He saw a person, no doubt a tourist by their clothes, talking to one of the merchants about their products. Naruto looked on with curiosity and shock as he saw the merchants actually being nice to the tourist. Naruto never knew that the villagers of Konoha could be soo… nice to strange and new people. He pondered about his discovery as he made his way to the Academy.

Just a little bit later, Naruto was sitting at his desk not paying attention to his sensei's lecture about the limitations of a person's chakra. The lone boy was staring out the window thinking about earlier this morning.

_That was weird… Not only was that tourist new, but he was also treated with respect and kindness… And even though the guy wasn't from around here, he was super nice to everyone…_ Naruto then looked out the window with his famous closed-eyes expression. _And the villagers really liked 'im… What if… I was nice…? Would that change anything…?_

Before Naruto could ponder more on his conclusion, he felt a piece of chalk hit the center of his forehead.

"Naruto, if you're going to daydream, at least do it on break. I'm trying to teach a class here." Iruka said exasperatedly.

Iruka expected Naruto to yell and shout at him; but what he got instead not only surprised him, but the whole classroom too. Naruto suddenly blinked and stared at Iruka.

"R-Right…" The blonde said before paying his attention to his assignment.

Everyone stared in silence as they watched the blonde boy start to scribble on his paper. Iruka snapped out of it once he heard loud whispers resonating throughout the classroom. The chūnin coughed to restore order, and started to slowly get on with class.

But as he was teaching, Iruka couldn't help but wonder about Naruto's sudden behavior.

_What's going on with Naruto? He didn't even yell at me for scorning him. Is it some illness? I've got to speak with him during break._ Iruka thought.

After a long period of notes, quizzes, and lectures from Iruka, the chūnin teacher called for recess.

"Alright everyone, that's it for now so let's take a break. Will meet outside on the training grounds in 30 minutes to go over what you've learn about combat." Iruka said.

The students all cheered and immediately headed for the door. A few moments later, the room was emptied out except for Iruka and Naruto. Umino looked at Uzumaki, only to see the boy staring out the window again with a blank expression on his face. Iruka sighed and slammed his book loudly on his desk.

Naruto jumped and looked at Iruka with alarm. "Iruka-sensei? What was that for?!" The boy yelled.

_Well at least he's reverted back to his old self. _Iruka thought. "Never mind that Naruto, I just wanted to talk is all."

Naruto stared at Iruka skeptically. "It's not gonna be another chew-out is it?"

Iruka chuckled. "No, no, I just wanted to ask you a question."

Naruto sighed and put his hands behind his head and stared at his sensei with his closed-eyed expression. "Okay, shoot."

Iruka went over to Naruto with his hands stuffed in his pockets. "What's the matter?"

"Huh?"

Iruka sighed. "I mean, what has been bothering you lately? You've been very unusual in class today. Are you sick?"

"Oh so that's what you wanted to know." Naruto sighed and stared at his desk with his blue eyes paling. "It's just that… this morning I saw some of the villagers—"

_Oh no, not again…_ Iruka thought with his eyebrows furrowing.

"—being super nice to this new guy that came to town, and they looked like they were having fun. So I thought, if I could be nice, would the villagers change about their thoughts on me?"

Iruka's eyes widened. He now knew why his favored student (though he would never admit it to anyone) wasn't acting like his normal self.

Iruka stared into Naruto's confused yet hopeful eyes. He sighed and started to scratch his cheek with his finger. "Well Naruto, it takes time for a person to really accept another one, even if they happened to tweak their personality a smidge."

"Oh." Naruto looked down, crestfallen.

"But…" Naruto looked up again. Umino smiled at his reckless pupil. "I guess it could be worth a shot."

"Yatta!" Naruto cheered happily, pumping his fists into the air. "Alright! I'm gonna be the nicest guy I can be!" Naruto then jumped out of his seat and ran out of the classroom.

"Thanks Iruka-sensei! You're the best!" Naruto called, his voice booming off of the hallways.

Iruka laughed heartily and started to organize his desk. "That boy is so full of energy…"

Once he was outside, Naruto was busy pondering over his new-found resolve. The question was, how was he going to do it?

_Help an old lady cross the street…? Nah, to obvious…_ _and cliché…_ Naruto scratched his chin. _Walk some dogs…? Nope, they'll just break loose or bite me…_ Naruto then sighed and folded his arms. _Man! Isn't there anything out there that can help me be nice?!_

Naruto sighed and made his way over to his swing. The swing was always empty because no one would dare go near it. The reason why is because of Naruto. Ever since he had first set foot near the swing, no one would even look in its direction. So Naruto took the liberty of claiming it for himself, and played on it.

Before the spiky haired boy could even sit on the swing, he heard a chirping noise.

"Eh?" Naruto started to look around for the source of the noise. "Oi, is anyone here?"

The chirping started again and Naruto went around the tree to investigate. After he reached the back of the tree, he saw a baby blue bird chirping pitifully at the tree. It tried to flap its wings but it didn't budge anywhere.

"Hey, what are you doing down here?" Naruto asked the small thing as he picked it up in his hands.

The small bird chirped at him, staring with his huge black beady eyes. Naruto stared at it quizzically before he looked up. He saw a nest with other baby birds, its siblings no doubt, chirping down at him. Naruto stared at the nest, then the baby bird in his hands, and back again.

"Oh, are they your family?" Naruto asked (no duh Sherlock). Naruto grinned and put the small bird in his unruly blonde locks. "I'll getcha back up there, no sweat! Dattebayo!"

The ninja-in-training then grappled onto the tree and started to clamber up its trunk. After a little while, Naruto finally made it to the grove where the nest was. The little creatures started to immediately chirp louder at him. And their sibling chilling in Naruto's hair chirped just as loud.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. I get it already, you wanna be together, jeez!" Naruto grumbled as he dug around his head for the bird that was hiding in his hair. Once he felt a lump in his hair, he pulled it out and placed the babe bird with his family. It was immediately welcomed with hearty chirps and nuzzles from its brothers and sisters.

Naruto smiled at the scene unfolding before his eyes. He felt a small part of his being get stabbed because that he was never treated this way. But the rest of him couldn't help but feel elated that the lone bird was finally reunited his family.

_At least one of us is happy…_ Naruto thought solemnly.

"OI NARUTO!"

Naruto suddenly jumped up hitting his head against a branch that was above him. "GAH!" The blonde then fell out of the tree, resulting in himself getting hit on the noggin once more.

"Ouchouchouchouchouch!" Naruto mumbled as he began to comically roll on the floor while soothing his two bumps that formed on his head.

After he was done with his episode, Naruto suddenly rounded on his offender. "OI! WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR?!"

"Well it looks like he's back to his old self, eh Shino?" A voice mocked.

"So it seems." Said another.

Naruto then looked at his offenders for a second time. He realized that it was just his classmates Inuzuka Kiba (age 13) and Aburame Shino (age 13) standing over him.

Inuzuka Kiba was wearing a long-sleeved tan shirt with pale blue shorts, and blue unisex shinobi sandals. He had brown spiky locks, and had a tattooed red triangle on each cheek. He also had a small white dog named Akamaru, which was perched atop of his head. Aburame Shino, on the other hand wore a pale green outer trench coat with a grey one with red buttons on the inside. Shino also had spiky brown hair, but he also wore pitch black shades that didn't even show a glimmer of his eyes.

Shino was considered weird. What with him being antisocial, having fetishes with insects, and never showing his mouth to anyone. While Kiba on the other hand was Shino's polar opposite. Kiba was short-tempered and impulsive; he's always loud, and could be very crude at times when he wouldn't even notice. But apparently, the two boys made a very… unique friendship.

"Oh it's you guys, Kiba, Shino." Naruto said as he got up and dusted himself off. "So what's up?"

"'What's up?'" Kiba snorted. "What's up is you actin' weird Naruto! I mean, you didn't even explode today! What's up with that?" Akamaru yipped in agreement.

Naruto blinked at him, before pounding his fist into his hand. "Oh, that! Yeah, I was just thinking about somethin'."

Kiba cackled loudly. "You, _you_, **think**?"

"OI! WHADDYA—" Naruto suddenly stopped and breathed in deeply, only to exhale through his nose. "I mean, what do you mean by that?"

Kiba, Shino, and Akamaru looked at Naruto with surprise. Kiba with his sharp eyes widening and his mouth slightly gapping, Shino with his eyebrows rounded fully over his glasses, and Akamaru with him tilting his head and his brown ears flopping with him. The Inuzuka and Aburame suddenly exchanged looks.

"But seriously dude," Kiba replied with his tone serious, "what's wrong with you? You sick or something?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nah, I just trying something out. No biggie."

"And what are you experimenting with, Naruto?" Shino asked, with his interest clearly hidden by his demeanor.

The blonde suddenly grinned, unsettling the two boys. "Oh, you'll see during combat training. Dattebayo!"

Before either brunette could question the Kyuubi container any further, Iruka suddenly called all of them over for training.

"Well, that's our cue! Ready guys?" Naruto asked the duo.

Kiba and Shino exchanged confused looks once more before nodding hesitantly at the blonde.

"Yosh! Let's go!" Naruto cheered as he, Kiba, Shino, and Akamaru made their way towards the combatant arena.

* * *

"Alright students, today we're going to be working on combat with taijutsu." Iruka said, and the male part of the class all cheered while the female all groaned. "Alright, alright, settle down, all of you."

He coughed before starting again. "As you all know, jutsu is an essential part of a ninja's being. But he himself is also a great weapon without jutsu. True, ninjutsu and genjustu do make for a powerful combination of a shinobi's strength, but his taijutsu is also a great and important weapon in his arsenal."

Iruka then shuffled his papers that were in his hands. "After the combatants fight with one clear winner, they will make the sign for unity amongst shinobi." Iruka then made his two fingers on each hand cross each other as a demonstration. "Understood?"

"Hai, Iruka-sensei!" Everyone said in unison.

Iruka nodded and then looked down at his papers. "Alright, first contestants are…"

Naruto couldn't help but yawn as he watched his classmates duke it out with each other. Sure fights were cool, but then it would get boring after you had seen everyone pull the same punches.

"Hey, Naruto." A voice called out to him.

"Hmm?" The blonde jinchuriki looked around until he spotted two familiar faces. "Huh, Shikamaru? Chōji? What's the matter?"

Nara Shikamaru (age 13) and Akimichi Choji (age 13) were two other familiar faces that Naruto knew. Nara Shikamaru was considered lazy, and always griped about everything. But under his lazy façade, he was a true genius. His partner Akimichi Ch oji was a kind boy with a big heart. Minus the fact that he eats a lot, he is considered very loyal to friends and teachers.

Shikamaru wore a short-sleeved grey shirt with dark grey rings around the sleeves with his clan's symbol right in the middle. He also had on dark navy blue shorts and blue unisex shinobi sandals. Shikamaru always liked to keep his black hair up in a ponytail, just like the rest of his family and clanmates. Choji, on the other hand, wore a long-sleeved zip up jacket that was light green at the collarbone area, and dark green the rest of the way down. Black shorts and blue unisex ninja sandals. Choji also had spiky brown hair and one red swirl mark on each of his cheeks.

The duo made their way over to the blonde, with Choji eating some potato chips and Shikamaru with his hands stuffed inside his pockets.

"Kiba, he told me you had something big going on. But he says you won't tell him. It's troublesome that I'm gonna say it but… just what are you planning Naruto?"

"Oh so Kiba told you huh?" Naruto said.

"Not only that, but Shino actually said something about it too." Choji answered, munching loudly on his chips.

"If Shino actually _says_ something, then it must be big. That guy really does give me the creeps." Shikamaru said, rubbing his temples with annoyance.

"Kiba _and_ Shino?! I knew I couldn't trust Kiba, but Shino too?" Naruto sighed. "It just goes to show you about who's who these days."

"Well, what are you doing Naruto? Is it another prank?" Choji asked quizzically.

Naruto pondered for a moment. _Should I tell them…?_ He shook his head. _Nah, that would ruin the surprise!_

"Well like I said to those two guys, you just gotta wait and see!" Naruto gave them his fox grin and nice guy pose.

The two friends blinked, looked at one another, before blinking again. Shikamaru was the first one to recover.

"Che. How troublesome." Shikamaru complained as he ran his fingers through his hair while looking at the sky.

Choji then snapped out of it and then went back to eating his chips, slowly. "Well, this outta be interesting."

"Next up is… Haruno Sakura and Hyuuga Hinata." Iruka called out.

Naruto immediately paid all of his attention to the arena. Not only because it was a girl fight, but because his crush, Haruno Sakura was fighting.

"Please take your positions." Iruka instructed two girls.

Haruno Sakura (age 13) took the left side of the drawn out arena while Hyuuga Hinata (age 13) took the right. Haruno Sakura was a girl of principle. She always followed the rules, did her work, a perfect student. Though she did, and like all of the girls in the Academy, have a huge crush on the one and only, Uchiha Sasuke (age 13). Sakura wore an all green, long-sleeved dress with white leaf decorations on the bottom right of her dress. She also wore a single red ribbon that kept her hair in place nicely, and had blue unisex ninja sandals.

Naruto smiled and was about to cheer her on, but stopped as he spotted something on the corner of his eyes. It was the other girl.

Hyuuga Hinata, the heiress of the prestige clan of the Hyuugas. Like the rest of her family, she possess a kekkei genkai of ocular prowess that can be able to let her see into a shinobi's chakra points. But unlike her other Hyuuga brethren, Hinata was a shy, timid, and meek girl. She didn't like violence, yet she wanted to be a ninja, and she rarely spoke like Shino.

Naruto thought that she was…

"Weird…" He whispered aloud.

Shikamaru looked at Naruto with confusion. "Mm? You see something Naruto?" the lazy tactician asked.

Naruto started to wave his hands around frantically. "O-Oh it was nothing. Just a fly." Then the blonde boy stared at the Hyuuga with interest.

Hinata wore a pale turquoise-ish vest-like jacket that had the Hyuuga insignia right over her heart. She also wore black expendable shorts, and the standard blue unisex ninja sandals.

But really caught Naruto's eyes, was her whole physical enigma. She had the darkest hair he had ever seen, her eyes were the biggest eyes he had ever seen too. They looked like two full moons that had a tinge of lavender colored on them. And her skin, her skin was very pale, like porcelain. And her cheeks would always stay in a constant blush. It wasn't infuriating, it was just… Unusual for him…

As they got ready, Naruto couldn't help but feel sorry for the poor girl. What with her, poking her two index fingers together, and her knees slightly buckling, he just couldn't help himself but be sympathetic towards her.

Naruto sighed through his nose and gave a small, but genuine smile towards Hinata. He knew she wouldn't look towards him but…

Wait… What was that…?

Naruto blinked. He could see her look at him just out of the rim on her eyelids. She was looking at him. She was actually _looking_ in his direction! Naruto couldn't help but feel elated that someone was actually _paying attention_ to him.

He felt his smile widen until it stretched so far, it hurt. He gave Hinata a small wave. He watched her jump with surprise, with her eyes widening. She then whipped her head back to her opponent.

Naruto felt his smile falter until it slowly became a small frown. Had he ruined it? Did he make her uncomfortable? Was she mad at him? Questions started to immediately buzz around his brain as he stared at Hinata.

Did she… hate him now…?

Before Naruto could rip his eyes away and sulk with guilt. He saw that the darkette, yet again, looked in his direction. Naruto jumped with surprise. So she didn't hate him! The blonde just grinned. He was going to talk to her after training.

"Hinata… Hinata. Hinata!" Iruka yelled at the timid girl.

"Y-Yes Iruka-s-sensei?!" Hinata squeaked with her face burning up.

"I said are you ready?" Iruka asked her gently, feeling guilty as he startled the poor girl.

Hinata nodded hesitantly. "H-Hai sensei…"

Iruka smiled with relief. "Well then, please bow to your opponent, and get into your fighting stance."

"Y-Yes…" The two girls bowed towards each other, Hinata's a little more humble than intended to be. Then they both got into their stance.

Naruto watched with awe as the meek girl as she got into her fighting stance. A second ago, he thought that she wouldn't know anything about fighting, but now that he's watching her get ready, he was sorely wrong.

Hinata breathed in deeply as she calmly spread her feet, with her squatting slightly. Her right hand slipped out in front of her while her left went all the way back until it stopped right in front of her heart. She then stared at Sakura with such resolve, determination, and confidence he nor has anyone ever seen before. It was so amazing, that whispers were loudly emerging from some of the other students.

Usually, Hyuuga Hinata would always forfeit a match; fearing that she might hurt one of her dearest classmates or friends. But lately, Hinata has started to get more involved with the program, confusing everyone.

"It seems Hinata looks serious today," Shikamaru stated boringly, "how troublesome."

"Yeah, it looks like Sakura's in trouble." Choji agreed in between munches.

Naruto frowned upon hearing the news. He didn't like the idea of Sakura being frowned upon on, but he couldn't help agree with them. Sure Sakura was considered a genius in all of the shinobi academics, but when it came to fighting… she wasn't as good as she was supposed to be.

It just proved their point as Sakura slipped into her battle stance. Her fists were up but they looked sloppy, her back was slightly hunched instead of straight, and her feet were two close-for-comfort.

Iruka felt himself sweatdrop as he watched. _Hopefully this won't end as bad as I fear…_ He thought pleadingly.

"R-Right… Ready… Begin!"

The two girls just stood there, squaring each other off, until Hinata shifted herself to the right, making Sakura shift to the left. Hinata shifted again while staring at Sakura with an impassive face.

_Wh-Why is she looking at me like that…?_ Sakura thought nervously. _Does she have some sort of grudge against me…?_ The pinkette shook her head vigorously_. No, no! I mustn't let her get to me! Not like this! I'm doing this for Sasuke-kun!_

The green eyed girl stared at almost-every-girl-in-the-academy's dreamboat, Uchiha Sasuke. The boy wore a dark black shirt that had a high collar visage and the Uchiha clan's insignia on the middle of his back, black shorts, and blue unisex shinobi sandals. He had black raven hair with two long spiky strands of hair that reached all the way down to his chin. His black pearled eyes looked off somewhere, not interested in the fight.

The pinkette sighed with awe and admiration. She suddenly looked back at Hinata with determination flooding her electric green eyes. _ALRIGHT! This win will definitely make Sasuke-kun notice me now! CHA!_

"HIIIYAAAHHH!" The pink haired girl screeched and charged at Hinata at full speed. Sakura then threw a punch, hoping it would make the timid girl go down. Sadly, that didn't happen. Once Sakura threw that punch, Hinata easily sidestepped it and effectively chopped Sakura at the midsection of her back. The pinkette went down with a heavy thud, struggling to get back up.

Iruka sighed. _If only more of the girls in this class would actually _train_ to be great kunoichis, then stuff that are humiliating like this would never happen to them!_ "Winner, Hyuuga Hinata."

"Aww, what a disappointment."

"I know right, I was hoping for a longer chick fight!"

"Tell me about it! But I guess it was cool."

"Yeah, who knew that Hyuuga girl could be good at fighting!"

Some of the students whispered to one of another; mostly consisting of the male populace. Iruka smiled at Hinata not only for showing a display of skill, experience, and precision, but also for displaying an act of kindness towards her comrade.

Hinata quickly ran over to the fallen Sakura and helped her up. "S-Sorry about that! I-I didn't kn-know it would hurt y-you this b-bad!" Hinata lended out a hand and Sakura took it gratefully.

"Nah, it's okay! You had to do what you had to do!" Sakura smiled. Though the pinkette's inner voice thought otherwise.

"**CHA! SHE MADE ME LOOK BAD IN FRON OF SASUKE-KUN! NOW THERE'S GONNA BE HELL TO PAY! SHANROO!"** Inner Sakura boomed, punching the air vigorously.

"Great fight girls." Iruka smiled. "Now please show the unison sign of friendship towards your fellow classmate."

Both girls nodded and faced each other. They both put out two fingers and they crossed, and then they folded and held each other. Hinata smiled gently at the pinkette with a light hue of pink on her cheeks. Sakura in turn, grinned at the shy Hyuuga heiress with her own light shade of pink appearing on her cheeks.

Iruka smiled at the display. He was glad that even though there was one loser, and one winner, the girls had managed to not bicker and maintain stability towards each other.

_Now that's what a call being a true shinobi…_ Iruka thought as he smiled at the two girls proudly. "Alright you two. Please move out of the arena for the next two contestants. The next combatants are…"

Naruto watched as Hinata made her way out of the drawn out fighting ring, to the far right of the flock of girls that were positioned there. Naruto squinted his eyes slightly to see that the heiress was far away from the girls instead of closer.

_Doesn't she have any friends over there…?_ Naruto thought curiously. He would have to investigate.

As the blonde haired Jinchuriki was about to make his way over to the lavender eyed girl, he was stopped by his sensei.

"Okay, our next contestants are Uchiha Sasuke and Uzumaki Naruto!"

Naruto groaned. Somehow, he knew that was going to happen. As he made his way out onto the arena, he was stopped by a hand on his shoulder. Naruto looked around to see Shikamaru giving him a small smile of reassurance.

"Good luck out there Naruto," The cloud gazer said, "you're gonna need it."

"Geez Shikamaru," Naruto grumbled, "aren't you just a little ray of sunshine!"

The Nara shrugged and stuffed his hands in his pockets. Naruto sighed and continued to trek out to the arena, grumbling under his breath. As he positioned himself on the far left, Sasuke made his way over to the right. As he did, he was greeted by screams and cheers of the girls.

"Oh, Sasuke-kun!"

"Sasuke-kun!"

"You can do it Sasuke-kun!"

The last comment came from Yamanaka Ino (age 13). She wore a light orange long-sleeved shirt that had dark black lines along the edges. She also had on badge pants with white rings at the bottom, red unisex ninja sandals, a light purple double ringed necklace, and a blue hair clip on the left side of her short light blonde hair.

Ino constantly thinks about boys and takes a great deal of pride in her appearance, more than others. She's very popular in the Academy, with the girls but mostly with the boys. She can also be very confident, kind, and outspoken, not afraid to speak her mind, and sometimes suggests that Chōji should lose weight (much to the hearty boy's annoyance).

"Alright Sasuke-kun, pound your opponent!" This comment came from Naruto's crush, Sakura; much to the blonde's disappointment.

_This is already starting bad…_ Iruka thought hesitantly. _Might as well get this train wreck started…_ "Alright then, Naruto, Sasuke, please bow towards your opponent."

Sasuke just glared at Naruto with a face of disgust. But in any case, the Uchiha did what his teacher complied. Somewhat stiffly.

_Okay that's one down…_ Iruka thought. The chūnin then turned towards the other student with worry clearly drawn on his face. _Now for the other… Hopefully…_

"Okay Naruto, your turn." Iruka said with hesitancy.

Everyone turned towards the blonde, already knowing what would happen.

"Ugh. I'll bet Naruto will explode again!" A girl whispered to another.

"Doesn't he always do that?"

"Yeah, but it's so annoying! _He's_ so annoying!"

"He's not proving anything when he shouts, he's just embarrassing himself!"

They all whispered. Naruto grinned mischievously as he took glances at his fellow classmates. Boy wouldn't they all be in for a surprise today! The blonde Uzumaki couldn't wait to pull out his trick on them.

_HA! I can't wait to see the looks on their faces! It'll be classic!_ The boy snickered at the thought. As his cerulean gaze started to scan the faces of his classmates, his eyes caught some other familiar ones.

_It's that girl, Hyuuga Hinata!_ He thought, a little happy that she was looking at him again. But then he frowned. _I bet she's also cheering for Sasuke-teme too…_

But then Naruto saw that she was hesitantly looking at him. He watched as she slowly and shyly lifted up her hands to form two thumbs up for him. _Him!_ The Leaf Village's troublemaker, the pariah! Now Naruto was definitely sure that he was going to make this day the most memorable day in the Ninja Academy's history!

"Naruto… Naruto… OI NARUTO!" Iruka yelled at the blonde.

"GAH!" Naruto jumped in surprise, resulting the class to erupt with laughter.

"I said bow!"

"R-Right…" Naruto then bowed towards Sasuke respectively.

This act resulted in a chain reaction of events. The whole class gasped, Iruka's mouth hung open, Sasuke's eyes widened, Hinata covered her mouth with her hands, Kiba looked incredulously at the blonde, Akamaru whimpered, Shino's eyebrows became visible over his shades, Choji munched louder on his chips, Shikamaru stared at Naruto with shock, and Naruto just grinned inwardly.

It took a moment for Iruka to gather his bearings before continuing again. "O-Okay… Now please take your position."

"Oi Iruka-sensei, I wanna say something to Sasuke-teme," Naruto asked his teacher, "it won't take long."

Iruka sighed at the Kyuubi jailers reestablished antics. "Naruto, we've already been over this…!"

"Aw c'mon, puh-please?" Naruto gave his sensei the best puppy eyes he could muster.

"No, I—"

"I'll use the Sexy Jutsu again." Naruto said with an impassive face.

"Make it quick." Iruka stated while pretending to busy himself amongst his papers.

Naruto turned towards Sasuke with his famous foxy grin stretched upon his lips. Sasuke in turn braced himself for whatever insults Naruto would do with narrowed eyes.

"I've only got one thing and one thing only to say to you, teme…" Naruto said while pointing a finger accusingly at the Uchiha. "And that is…"

_Here it comes…_ Sasuke, along with everyone else, was getting ready for the blonde's words.

Naruto's grin suddenly diminished into a small genuine smile, with his blue eyes smiling with kindness towards the Uchiha. "… Let's make this a friendly spar, ne?"

Everyone stared at Uzumaki Naruto in silence.

A second passed…

Then ten…

"Eh…?" Sasuke said staring at the Uzumaki with wide eyes.

"Eh?" Iruka also stated while he became slack jawed at Naruto's words also.

"EHH?!" Everyone then screamed in a big chorus of confusion. Naruto just stared at them with confusion written all over his face.

"What? What did I say?"

"H-Hey dobe." Sasuke addressed the young blonde buck.

"Mm?" Naruto turned to look at Sasuke, shocking everyone not of his dense obliviousness, but not exploding at Sasuke for being insulted.

"Say that again."

"Say what?"

"The thing you last said."

Naruto tilted his head in confusion before pounding his fist into his hand. "Oh, that! Yeah I said, 'let's make this a friendly spar'. What, what's up with that?"

"OI BAKA! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU!" Kiba yelled at Naruto, pointing at him.

"THAT'S ENOUGH KIBA!" Iruka shouted using is Big Head no Jutsu. The chūnin then returned to normal and coughed to restore order. "Now then, will the two combatants please get into their battle stances."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted, eliciting squeals from his flock of fanclub girls. The Uchiha spread his feet wide apart and expertly held up his fists; he then looked at his fellow blonde classmate with narrowed black pearled eyes.

"Okay then, now Naruto if you would—" Iruka started only to be silence by his favored pupil yet again.

"YOSH! Let's get this party started!" Naruto then relaxed his pose and got into his own position. The blonde stomped his right foot way out in front of his left, effectively sliding his left foot at 9 O'clock; then the blonde boy put both of his fists out in front, only turning his left hand into a single chop.

Yet again, Naruto managed to surprise everyone today by his sudden behavior. Everyone knew that the dead-last was also sloppy in his fighting style, but right now he was displaying how refined his battle position was.

_Naruto sure is surprising today…_ Iruka thought, staring at the Kyuubi jailer intently. _I wonder… Could it have been something I said…?_

"Alright then. Ready…"

The two boys suddenly stiffened, getting ready for combat.

"Begin!" Iruka shouted.

Almost immediately, the two rivals launched at each other. Naruto first threw a punch, only to be blocked by the last Uchiha. Sasuke in turn, threw a punch with his free hand, predicting, just like everyone else, to end the match immediately.

A loud thump sounded, and everyone expected to see Naruto to fall on the ground to be defeated, only to see…

That Naruto, _Uzumaki Naruto_, had for once, _blocked_ Uchiha Sasuke's punch.

The spectators were awed into silence, and Naruto just grinned into Sasuke's face as they were at a stalemate, pushing into one another.

"Not this time, Sasuke-teme!" Naruto chuckled loudly, making the Uchiha growl in annoyance.

Then the two boys sprang apart, sliding on the ground until they were only a few inches away from the boundary. Sasuke regained his posture, watching Naruto as the blonde started to bounce on his feet, with his fists loosely clutched.

"Whoo! Good rebound Sasuke-teme! I'd expect no less from the Rookie of the Year, 'ttebayo!" Naruto said as he actually _complimented_ on the Uchiha.

Yet again, Naruto has managed to single-handedly paralyze his entire class and his sensei with only his words.

"Is Naruto okay?" A student said to another.

"He's acting weird…"

"Is he on some sort of medication or something?"

"I dunno, he probably ate some bad food."

"Whatever it was, it's actually making him… nice…"

_Yatta! It's actually working! Iruka-sensei was right!_ Naruto grinned at his success. He then started to stretch to get serious with Sasuke. _If this is the reaction of me being nice, I wonder what would happen if the whole village got wind of this?_

As he stretched, Naruto caught sight of Hinata again. He smiled at her reaction. She was staring at him with wide lavender eyes, one of her hands covering her slightly agape mouth, and her constant blush looked darker than usual.

_Heh! She seems to notice too!_ Naruto stopped stretching and started to shake out his muscles. _Alright! Let's get this show on the road!_

"Are you ready Sasuke-teme? 'Cause I'm gonna get serious now!" Naruto yelled at his opponent.

* * *

Sasuke stared at his blonde counterpart with spite and confusion. Never before had the Uchiha experienced this sort of surprising growth from the dead-last of the Ninja Academy.

_How did this happen…?_ Sasuke thought, narrowing his eyes at the blonde. _What could have caused such a reaction from Naruto…? Was he always like this or… Has he been toying with me all this time…?_

Sasuke growled at the last thought. No way would he, the last Uchiha her of the prestige Uchiha clan, be dooped by some wannabe ninja.

"Are you ready Sasuke-teme?" Sasuke growled at the insulting nickname Naruto has had the _gracious_ liberty of giving him. "'Cause I'm gonna get serious now!"

Sasuke scoffed. "When have you _ever_ been _serious_, Naruto?"

The only response he got from the Jinchuriki was a friendly smile, which irked the Rookie of the Year.

"Oh just right…" Naruto suddenly sprinted towards Sasuke with such speed, it greatly surprised everyone. As Naruto jumped towards Sasuke to deliver a right hook, the Uchiha only had seconds to put up his arms to block. "NOW!"

And Naruto gave Sasuke a devastating punch at the midsection of his crossed arms. The result was surprising. Naruto had managed to force back Sasuke all the way to the border line of the circle, only to stop once Sasuke pushed Naruto back with a harder force. They separated, and Sasuke ran in the circle more but also kept a safe distance from Naruto.

Sasuke glared at Naruto with his teeth grounding together slightly. _Since when did Naruto become this powerful?! Is he messing with—_ Sasuke suddenly took a deep breath. _No, I shouldn't let him get to me, rather I should get to him. Seems easy._

"Hey, Naruto." The blonde blinked at the raven haired boy. "You're not proving anything to anyone you know." Sasuke grinned. "Even though you think you may be displaying chivalry, a dead-last idiot, such as yourself, can never outmatch someone like me."

Sasuke watched with triumphant eyes as he saw Naruto glare at him while grounding his teeth loudly. His fist clenched hard until his knuckles became white, and he hunched over as if ready to spring.

_Heh. How typical._ But something else caught the arrogant Uchiha's eyes. He saw Naruto's blue eyes shift over to look at something. Curious, Sasuke followed his gaze, only to come across a lone girl with big lavender eyes and shine dark blue hair almost in the same style as his.

_One of those obnoxious girls? Why is he so interested in her?_ But then the Uchiha suddenly understood the Uzumaki's curiosity. That lone girl, was actually looking straight at the Uzumaki. Sasuke's eyes narrowed and saw that she looked… worried for Naruto?

The raven haired boy tilted his head a fraction of an inch in curiosity. _How peculiar…_ But Sasuke was rudely brought out of his thoughts but a fist to his cheek.

Naruto had managed to attack during Sasuke's moment of distraction. The result was devastating for the spectators and for Sasuke himself.

"Rule no.1 of a shinobi's guide, Sasuke-teme," Naruto yelled as they slowly started to plummet onto the ground, "never let your guard down!"

Sasuke growled for one, being hit by the dobe; and two, being lecture by him. If Sasuke knew one thing, it was he was having none of this!

Before they hit the ground, with Sasuke looking defeated, the Uchiha did an impossible maneuver where in the few seconds, he managed to flip himself on top, and Naruto on the bottom. Naruto hit the ground first with a heavy thud, and with Sasuke pinning him down with a sly grin plastered on his face.

"Like I have stated before dobe," Sasuke said while wiping away the blood dripping down the corner of his mouth, "an idiot like you can never outmatch someone like me."

Naruto just grinned at him, setting the arrogant boy off again. "We'll see teme, we'll see…"

"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke." Iruka said, offsetting loud cheers from the girls as they screamed the Uchiha's name. Sasuke glared at Naruto one more time before getting up and walking over to Iruka.

* * *

Naruto sat up and coughed as dirt started to cascade around him. Sure he was angry from losing, to Sasuke no doubt, but he was also happy that he had managed to surprise and land a punch on the teme for once. So all in all, it was a win-win, for him that is.

He got up and made his way over to Iruka and Sasuke, standing in front of the Uchiha with a big smile on his face.

Iruka lifted an eyebrow at Naruto's behavior, but brushed it aside. "Alright, now please show the unison sign of friendship towards your fellow classmate." _Without strangling each other…_ Iruka added inwardly.

The duo then looked at each other, Sasuke glaring while Naruto smiled; they both lifted up two fingers and crossed it. Either one not daring to grab onto the other.

"Alright then," Iruka sighed in relief, "please move off of the ring for the next two—"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" Naruto shouted as he ran over to Hinata.

"OI NARUTO, YOU BRAT! I WASN'T FINISHED!" Iruka yelled angrily at the spiky haired boy.

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto said boredly as he looked away while sticking a finger into his ear.

Iruka cringed and started to shake with anger. _That brat…!_ He then sighed and continued on with class, although the whole time he had a vein bursting on his head.

Naruto looked at Iruka and then sighed. "What a killjoy, ne?" He said as he nudged Hinata.

Naruto blinked when she didn't respond. He turned towards he only to see her look at the ground and poke her fingers together.

He leaned in closer. "Hey are you okay?"

He watched her jump slightly and squeak with surprise. She looked at him like she was a dear trapped in some headlights. Naruto stared at her for a few moments before realizing he was making her uncomfortable.

"Oh my bad. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable." He said sheepishly while rubbing the back of his head.

"I-It's o-okay…" She stammered.

They stayed silent for a few seconds before Naruto started the conversation again.

"Oh where are my manners," Naruto suddenly held out a hand towards the girl, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, pleasure to meetcha!"

Naruto looked at her nervously as she looked at his hand, then him, then back again. He was inwardly pleading her to take his hand.

_C'mon please, please, please!_

He suddenly smiled once he saw her hesitantly reach out towards his hand, and took it shakily. Naruto couldn't help but feel surprised by Hinata's hand as they shook. It was very small in his own, it was soft, and even though it pale and cold, it wasn't. It was… warm…

_Weird…_ He thought as he let go off her hand. But since the boy we know and love is very dense even to his own emotions, Naruto brutally shoved those thoughts down the darkest resources of his mind.

"So Hinata," Naruto bounced, eager to finally strike up a conversation with someone new, "you looked pretty awesome out there on the ring!"

* * *

Hyuuga Hinata couldn't believe that she was actually talking with her crush. It was like a dream come true. He just suddenly ran over here, and started to talk to her. She didn't know though, but if this was a dream, she didn't want to wake up.

And the best part was, he was actually complimenting her fight! So of course she couldn't help but blush. And it took every ounce of her willpower not to faint right there on the spot.

_I-I can't believe it…! It's Naruto-kun…! H-He's actually talking to me…_ Hinata inwardly sighed as she felt her vision started to have black spots floating around.

"Hinata… Hinata. HINATA!" A voice screamed.

"A-Ah! Wh-What?" Hinata shook her head and started to look around with panic showing in her eyes.

She heard snickering and turned to see Naruto holding his stomache with one hand, while the other ball into a fist against his laughing mouth.

"I… I'm sorry! It's just that…!" He chuckled again. "It's really funny when you look like that!"

He chuckled again, making the Hyuuga blush in embarrassment. She gripped tightly at the end of her vest-like jacket as she shuffled her feet nervously against the ground, trying hard to maintain the scorching blush that appeared across her face.

"S-Sorry… Na-Naruto-kun…" She mumbled out.

She suddenly felt a hand on her shoulder, causing her to look up at the spiky hair boy. Albeit reluctantly.

"Hey c'mon," He smiled gently at her, "lighten up a bit. I just said you looked funny, I wasn't insulting you." He suddenly stopped and looked thoroughly out into space. "Err… Wait… I might have…"

Hinata blinked a few times in surprise. After a few moments, she suddenly started to giggle lowly until those giggles escalated in volume.

Naruto stared at her in surprise before chuckling along with her.

"Okay everyone," Iruka's voice boomed, effectively cutting the duo's merriment. "It's time to go inside so I can give you your report cards." The class groaned. "And to inform you since summer is tomorrow, that you'll have no school over the summer break!" The class then cheered.

Everyone then rushed inside with happiness etched on their features.

"Oh wait everyone! I forgot to tell you that when you get back, The Genin Exams will begin!" Iruka shouted after them, only for it to backfire against himself.

"Well that's our cue!" Naruto grinned as he stared down at Hinata with his eyes smiling.

"H-Hai." She nodded hesitantly.

"Hey Hinata."

Said Hyuuga heiress turned to look at her crush with a dark blush appearing on her cheeks. "Y-Yes, N-Naruto-kun?"

She watched in confusion as his demeanor suddenly became nervous. He opened his mouth only to shut it again; this process repeated several times before he sighed in defeat.

"Would you… like to.. you know just you and me talk sometimes?" The blonde boy spoke really fast with one eye closed in anticipation.

Hinata blinked.

10 seconds passed…

20 passed…

All of a sudden Hinata's face erupted into a dark crimson color. She staggered back and promptly stared to fall backwards towards the ground if not Naruto was there and caught her.

"EH?! Hinata! Are you okay?! HINATA?!" Naruto shouted as he tried to shake her awake.

Iruka sighed as he watched his best female student faint into Naruto's arms. _Some things… I will never understand…_

**OH YEAH! MY FIRST YOUNG NARUHINA FANFICTION! I feel like I shouldv'e done better... Ah well, tomato tamato! Well anyway I hope you dudes and dudettes enjoyed! If you've sneezed through this whole thing, THEN BLESS YOUR FACE! Anyway, see ya dudes later!**


	2. The Genin Exams

**The Evolution of Love**

The Genin Exams

After a long, hot, and boring summer, Uzumaki Naruto stretched his developing muscles as he sprang out of his bed. He yawned and lazily looked around his tiny cramped apartment. He was met with clean floors, kitchen, bathroom, bedroom, and walls. He thought that if he was going to be nice, he would have to always be nice to himself for a change.

Naruto yawned again as he slipped his feet into his slippers and started to shuffle slowly into his kitchen.

"Better make something…" Naruto mumbled out as he started up his stove and went over to his refrigerator. As soon as he opened it, Naruto was met with food that was fresh and filled to the brim. Not only did him being nice change his cleaning habits, but it also changed his eating habits as well.

"Let's see…" The blonde started to search slowly for his item. "Oh there you are…" The boy then grabbed two eggs and started to crack them onto the counter, and spilt the yolks into the frying pan that was waiting patiently for him on the stove.

As it cooked, the boy then went to his cabinets, started to spastically look for a cup, plate, fork, and knife and then set them on the table and poured himself a glass of cold milk.

The stove dinged, and Naruto slowly shuffled over, turned off the stove, put the fried eggs onto his plate and sat down to eat his breakfast.

He sat in silence as he started to chew slowly on his breakfast.

"I wonder how Hinata's doin'…" Naruto said to himself between munches.

Ever since that day a summer ago, Naruto has been talking to Hinata a lot lately. Though Hinata did have a lot to do as Hyuuga heiress, and would mostly be out of the village to another during the summer, the duo would still manage to see each other from time to time.

Naruto didn't know if they were friends or not, but he didn't press the issue because he was afraid that if he jumped to conclusions, it might be awkward between them.

Well he was expecting to see her at school today because last week before she left to the Village of Tea Leaves; she had told him that she was supposed to return to school on the 1st day at 8 O'clock sharp.

Now that Naruto looked at the clocked with closed eyes, he could see that it was…!

He spat out chunks of food once he saw the clock. "IT'S 7:30?!" He immediately jumped up and started to frantically make his way over to the shower, tripping as he did so.

"DAMN IT! I'M GONNA BE LATE!" He yelled as he quickly stripped out of his striped pajamas and hoped into the shower.

After a few seconds of scrubbing himself down, Naruto got a towel and tied it around his hips. He then scrubbed his teeth and checked his growing hair. Over the summer, Naruto decided to grow his hair out to see what he would look like. So he took care of it, though it was still spiky. Naruto had two long blonde spiky side bangs that both reached a little over his chin (think of Minato's hair).

Naruto then spat out the tooth paste in the sink, got some mouthwash, and gurgled it down before spitting it into the sink as well. After that, Naruto got a small red scrunchie and started to tie up his hair into a small ponytail.

He rushed out the bathroom, ran into his bedroom, and opened his wardrobe.

"Let's see, let's see… What to wear, what to wear…?" He grumbled under his breath and started to franticly move through clothes.

The reason why Naruto has soo many clothes is because he actually made a friend with and old woman named Mel that ran a tailor shop in Konoha! Naruto smiled at the memory.

* * *

FLASHBACK

It was the middle on summer, and Naruto was rummaging through his wardrobe.

"There's nothin' in here…" The boy sighed and started went out onto the porch, to wash his clothes. As he did so, Naruto saw something that intrigued his sharp blue eyes.

"Hmm? What's that?" Naruto squinted his eyes and gasped. It was a tailor shop! Just what he needed, new clothes!

The blonde grinned and started to vigorously scrub down his clothes, before putting them on and folded up his pajamas. He then jumped out of his apartment, and started to hop his way over to the shop.

Once he was in, he started to look around. No one was in the shop.

_It must be a slow day…_ Naruto sighed in relief. The last thing he wanted was to deal with some angry villagers again. The young lad started to look around the shop, fascinated with what he saw. His hands fingered the clothes, amazed by their softness and texture.

"Enjoying yerself?" A raspy voice said.

Naruto whipped around to see an old woman smiling at him from behind the counter. She was a chubby lady with white bristly hair that was woven tightly into a small bun, her black eyes had bags under them because of age, and she wore a plain pink kimono with green rims, and had frail but chubby hands that had red nail polish on her fingers.

Naruto cringed and tensed himself, awaiting her onslaught of whatever attack she would throw at him. The only attack she did, which greatly surprised him, was a hearty laugh.

"I ain't gonna attack ya boy," she said scowling at him, "who da ya think yer dealing with?"

Naruto blinked. "… So you're NOT gonna get me?" He was confused.

She sighed and waved him over. The Uzumaki was hesitant, but he reluctantly came over to her. Once he was close enough, the old woman clonked him square on his head.

Naruto staggered back while nursing his wound, swearing under his breath. After 5 seconds he suddenly rounded on the old woman. "WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT FOR GRANNY?!"

"FOR YE BEING STUPID, YOU BRAT!" She yelled back just as loud. She then sighed and pulled out a pipe. "I don't hold no grudge against you gaki." She lit out her pipe before smoking it.

Naruto blinked while holding his head. A few seconds past before he started to breathe again. "Nani?"

The old woman hit him again. "Are ye stupid? I said: **I don't hold no grudge against you**!" She suddenly stabbed him with a finger. "I just hate that old fox in ya! Not you!"

"B-But… B-But…!" Naruto spluttered. "_Everyone_ (but Hinata) hates me! They despise my very existence! They always yell: 'It's the demon brat!' or 'watch out for that monster'! Why don't you?!"

The lady sighed and puffed a bit of her pipe. "Lemme tell ya somethin' gaki. 13 yers ago, that fox was released onto Konoha. Shinobi fought against it, and many died. Of that many, me own son was amongst of the ones that died." Naruto saw that her face had looked like it aged a few more years. "Once I saw ya runnin around, I hated ya. Just lookin' at you, runnin with that smile on yer face, those tasteless clothes, those—"

"Hey, hey! I get it already!" Naruto shouted while he glared at the woman.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry brat. Anyway, I thought that with that stupid grin that was always on yer face, you were sad and dying inside. So I thought that I would stop holdin' a grudge against ya, and hold one to that fox in yer stomache." This time she stabbed Naruto's stomache with her wooden cane, which caused Naruto to go breathless for a few seconds.

After he regained his breath, Naruto rubbed his stomache while he looked up at the old woman. She in turn, gave him a toothy smile.

Naruto grinned. "It's actually pretty cool that at least one villager doesn't hate me!"

She laughed. "I like ya kid. Ya got spunk. So I'll let ya pick three outfits outta here fer free."

The blonde boy's eyes widened in surprise and shock. He could get something out of a store, for free? Without paying? He wouldn't get scolded at? No random stuff to the face? He just stared at the woman.

"Go on. Pick somethin' before I change me mind!" She growled.

Naruto cringed and started to scramble around the store, frantically searching for an outfit. Once he got three, he started to run out the door.

"Hey brat!" The woman called to him. Naruto stopped and looked at her.

"If ya need any clothes, come to me. I'm Hosokaya Mel by the way. So come on over and I'll hook ye up with some purrty clothes."

Naruto smiled and gave Mel a humble bow. "Thanks Mel-san. I'll hold you up to your offer."

* * *

FLASHBACK OVER

Naruto smiled fondly as he thought of the old woman. He snapped out of it though once he heard his alarm clock ring.

"OH NO! IT'S 7:30 ALREADY?! I'VE GOTTA HURRY!" Naruto started to through his clothes out of the wardrobe, not carrying for keeping tidy now. He found his outfit which consisted of an orange tracksuit with blue on the upper shoulders area as well as around the waist, a white swirl with a tassel on the left side, a red swirl on the back, a large white collar, and orange pants. He quickly stripped off his towel (don't be perverted girls!) and started to put on his outfit.

He then rushed out; with the eggs he snatched along the way, and put on his blue unisex ninja sandals. He quickly opened the door, and locked it once he was outside. "Only one more thing to do…"

Since Naruto usually had experience with people breaking and entering and vandalizing his things when the blonde was usually away. But since Naruto has been training during the summer, he has made some… unique additions into making his home safer.

The Uzumaki then lifted two fingers which started to glow blue along his fingertips. He then touched his door with that glowing hand, activating his traps and held them on standby. Naruto grinned. "This outta keep those pests out!" The blonde then started to hop along the roofs towards the school.

Naruto was waiting patiently for Hinata near the entrance of the Academy. He saw kids go in, and they all either stared at him with curiosity or surprise. The blonde started to fidget and kicked the dirt impatiently.

"Aww when is she coming?!" He growled. "It's almost been 5 minutes!"

He sighed and slumped against the wall. He started to play with his fingers or random objects to pass the time. Though when it had gotten hot, he started to pant; it was after summer after all. The after effects of the season still lingered heavily over Konohagakure.

Naruto stood up and unzipped his jacket, revealing his fishnet shirt that showed his torso underneath (squeal!). _How many degrees is it out here?!_ He thought grudgingly.

"N-Naruto-kun!" A soft voice called out to him.

Naruto craned his head to happily see Hinata running over to him. Her hair was still short, and still leveled hime-cut style just above her forehead, with her strands reaching chin-length now, and it framed her face. But what she wore, was new to Naruto. It was a cream-coloured hooded-jacket with a fire symbol on the upper right and left sleeves and fur around the cuffs and hem, with navy blue pants. But if there were three things Naruto still recognized about her, they were her blue unisex ninja sandals, her shy and timid demeanor, and her lavender eyes that weren't as big as before, but they were still noticeable.

Naruto waved to her and ran up to meet her. Hinata stopped, but Naruto kept going until he had her wrapped in his arms, and her small, lithe body against his strong, steady one.

"N-N-Naruto-k-kun?! Wh-What are you—?"

"I've missed you Hinata!" Naruto grinned, cutting her off midsentence. He gave her one last squeeze before letting her go. "It's been soo boring while you were gone! I had no one to talk to!"

He watched as Hinata started to wobble with amused eyes. She then shook her head before replying. "O-Oh I bet that's n-not true N-Naruto-kun…" Hinata stammered shyly. "I bet you talked t-to S-S-Sakura-san… Or Shikamaru-k-kun…"

Naruto snorted, making Hinata look up at him curiously. "Sakura-chan wouldn't give me the time of day even if I try!" Naruto grinned at Hinata and took her hands in his own. He was oblivious to the fact that Hinata's face was a dark red color. "But I'd much rather spend time with a friend like you Hinata!"

Hinata blushed harder and her hands started to shake nervously in Naruto's. "A-Are we friends…?" She looked down in embarrassment.

Naruto blinked and let go of one of her hands to rub the back of his head sheepishly. "I dunno… I mean, if you want to… I just thought…" Naruto felt his voice fail him as he awaited Hinata's answer.

He was nervous, he was beyond nervous. As he watched Hinata stare at him with her eyes wide, he started to think negatively.

_Does she want to be friends? Is she rethinking about talking to me? She probably is, I better tell her if she doesn't—_ "O-Okay." _I knew it would be alright all along!_

Naruto grinned and started to hug Hinata so hard; he almost broke her fragile figure. "Thanks Hinata-chan! This day couldn't possibly get better!" If you would squint your eyes onto Naruto's tanned cheeks, you could see a tiny tinge of pink stained on them.

And so, the evolution of love begins…

* * *

Iruka scanned his paper while calling out the names of his students. He was worried because two of his students were not present. They were: Hyuuga Hinata and Uzumaki Naruto.

"Daichi?"

"Here!"

Iruka kept his face trained on the paper, but his worry did not diminish. Rather, it increased with each passing second.

_Naruto, where in the blazes are you?!_ Iruka thought with sweat perpetrating down his neck not because of the heat, but because of worry.

"Sakura?"

"Present Iruka-sensei!" The pinkette shouted while her hand shot up.

Sakura now wore a red qipao dress with white circular designs, with short sleeves, with a zipper, tight dark green shorts, and blue unisex ninja sandals. She grew her hair out longer and held it back with a red ribbon that allowed two long bangs to frame her face.

"Aren't we an eager beaver today, eh pinky?" Ino snickered in front of the Haruno. The now long haired blonde wore a short purple vest like blouse with a raised collar, a skirt that was cut off on the sides and bandage on her stomach and legs. She also wore purple and white elbow warmers as a decoration.

"SHUT UP INO-PIG!"

"MAKE ME BILLBORAD BROW!"

_And there they go again…_ Iruka sighed. _Some things will never change…_ "Sakura, Ino, please sit down."

"Hai, Iruka-sensei." The two rivals in love grumbled simultaneously.

"Alright then," Iruka coughed and look through the papers again, "moving on. Hinata?"

No one answered. Iruka grew nervous again. "Hinata? Hyuuga Hinata? Has anyone seen Hinata?" The class all shook their heads and started to whisper amongst themselves.

Iruka gulped then sighed again. "I guess Hyuuga Hinata is—"

"HERE!"

Everyone turned to see Hinata being dragged in by a ponytailed blonde boy. He had a grin on his face has he pulled his partner along towards Iruka.

"I-Iruka-sensei, I-I'm here." Hinata said weakly as she blushed horribly from her partner still holding her hand.

Iruka sighed in relief. _That's one down… But where's…_ Iruka stopped short once his eyes trained on to the boy next to her. His eyes widened in surprise as he recollected the boy's appearance.

"Na—"

"AND UZUMAKI NARUTO, REPORTING IN FOR DUTY TOO!" The grinning boy yelled as well as he gave Iruka a salute.

Everyone went silent.

"EHH?!" They all screamed.

Naruto turned and huffed at them with a mock glare. "Seriously, you guys need to get with the program!"

"N-Naruto…?" Umino stammered, pointing at the blonde with a shaky finger. "I-Is that you?"

"The one and only!" He grinned. He suddenly pointed to the whisker marks on his cheeks. "I have whisker marks, ya see?"

"You look… Different…"

Naruto suddenly let go of Hinata's hand and placed both of his on his hips as he gave a hearty laugh, again shocking everyone. "I know right?! It is true when they say that wearing new clothes makes you look completely different!"

"And your hair?!" A new voice yelled at the spiky blonde. The trio turned to see Kiba pointing at Naruto's ponytail. Kiba had also changed his attire like everyone else. The Inuzuka wore dark greyish pants reaching to his calves and a grey, hooded fur-lined coat, with the hood firmly placed on his head, and had an apparent plate of armor and fishnet undershirt inside the coat and blue unisex ninja sandals. Akamaru poked out of the front of his jacket.

"Oh this," Naruto said pointing to his ponytail, "I've decided to grow it out. See what it looks like, ya know…? Wanna see it?" Before Kiba could reply, Naruto already started to undo his scrunchie. Once he got it off, his hair immediately cascaded down to his shoulders. It framed his face handsomely, and the blonde seemed to glow as he shook it out to let his hair a bit looser.

This caused three events; one, Hinata's face turned crimson red. Two, all of the other girls in the room had small blushes stained on their cheeks. And three, all of the boys, including Sasuke, either glared at Naruto or looked at him curiously.

Naruto stopped shaking his hair and blew the strands of hair that got in his face. He then smiled triumphantly at the Inuzuka. "Pretty cool, eh?"

"Nope. It makes you look like a girl!" Kiba sneered and the other boys started to laugh at his comment.

Naruto growled and a vein bursted on the corner of his head. He then chuckled lowly as he massaged his temples. "Don't be jealous Kiba. Just because you _look_ and _smell_ like a dog, it isn't the end of the world for you to find a girl that might actually _like_ a mutt like you."

Then everyone started to laugh, much to the dog tamer's annoyance. Kiba stood up and punched his fist into his hand and grinned manically at Naruto. "OH, YOU WANNA GO?!"

"BRING IT ON DOG BREATH!" The blonde shouted as he started to pull up his sleeves.

"ENOUGH! BOTH OF YOU!" Iruka screamed, silencing the classroom. "Naruto, Hinata, please take your seats." Hinata complied instantly and started to make her way towards her seat; while Naruto grumbled under his breath and walked right behind her.

Hinata sat down in her seat and Naruto sat in the empty seat right in front of her. Iruka nodded and coughed to get class started.

"Right then, as I have previously stated before, today is the beginning of the Genin Exams." The class groaned in annoyance. "So each student will perform the following jutsus: Substitution Jutsu, Henge, and Clone Jutsu."

"First up is…"

* * *

Naruto yawned as he waited for his turn. The disadvantage of having the last name Uzumaki was that your name always came last when called in alphabetical order. Naruto sighed and started to play with his fingers; but then he was snapped out of his boredom when a soft voice called out to him.

"Na-Naruto-kun…" Hinata whispered to him softly.

Naruto immediately lit up and twisted his body towards his friend with a happy grin on his face.

"Yes Hinata-chan?"

Hinata fidgeted with her fingers for a bit, causing Naruto to tilt his head in curiosity and smile at the same time. "Wh-Why did y-you call me Hi-Hinata-_chan_…?" She asked.

Naruto rubbed his chin and stared up at the ceiling playfully. "Hmm… Why did I call you Hinata-chan, Hinata-chan?" He teetered his body left and right as he "thought" about his answer.

"Oh that's right!" Naruto said aloud while pounding his fist down into his hand. "Because, since you're my new friend, you've gotta have a nickname!"

Hinata jumped in surprise. She suddenly looked down at her desk and started to push her two fingers together again. Naruto smiled.

"And besides," He stated, "It has a nice ring to it, don'tcha think?" Naruto then cleared his throat and began to sing softly. "_Hinata-chan! Hinata-chan! Oh how I love to sing your name! Hinata-chaaan!"_ And the blonde continued to sing making the bluenette blush harder with each note.

"Na-Naruto-kun…!" Hinata quietly admonished the blonde. But he continued to serenade her, so she covers her face with her hands and shakes her head; as if trying to make all of this go away.

Naruto laughed heartily but soon got silenced by Iruka's chalk that hit the Kyuubi container square on the head.

"Naruto," Iruka said in a sickly sweet voice, "since you seem to have free time on your hands, why don't you come up right now hmm?"

Everyone laughed at the blonde's expense as he made his way down to his teacher; out of all of them, Kiba was the loudest (much to Naruto's annoyance). Iruka had his hand gripped firmly on his pencil as he awaited the blonde's jutsu's. Naruto sighed and got himself ready.

"_Substitution Jutsu!_" He yelled as he made the necessary seals. Naruto suddenly poofed and in his place, a log was there. The door opened, all eyes were focused on it, and the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki walked into the classroom.

Iruka blinked. "Very… good… Naruto…" The scarred man shook his head and got on with it. "Okay, next perform the Henge."

Naruto nodded and made the seals: Dog, Boar, and Ram and yelled _"Henge Jutsu!"_ before being, yet again, engulfed in a white cloud. After it cleared, there stood a perfect replica of Umino Iruka.

The students started to whisper loudly amongst themselves. It was almost as if you could hear thousands of buzzing bees in the room. The real Iruka coughed to restore order once again. "W-Well Naruto, it seems you have improved quite a bit over the summer." Iruka commented.

"Yeah, I trained over the summer on my chakra control, 'cause it was the most difficult for me to learn." Naruto said sheepishly as he scratched at his whiskered cheek with a finger. "So I can manage a few jutsu without it failing. I ought to thank Old Lady Mel though, what with her making do impossible stuff around the shop…" Naruto sighed. The old woman could be a slave-driver at times…

Iruka stared at Naruto quizzically while the most of the class stared at Naruto with annoyance as the blonde started to ramble on and on about an old lady yelling at him at a paint incident he "accidently" committed.

"Ah, Naruto," Iruka said, getting the young lad's attention, "we've got to get this class rolling so please do the next jutsu."

"R-Right…" Naruto agreed and slowed down his breathing. He would always have trouble doing the Clone Jutsu specifically because it required that your chakra would be controlled throughout the entirety of the shinobi's body.

He suddenly clenched his hands as he felt his chakra pulsate around his body. No one else could, but he could feel chakra flares lashing out in all directions. 10 seconds had passed.

_Okay, calm down Naruto…_ He told himself as he felt the chakra spikes recede slowly. _Focus your chakra… Kept it maintained and controlled…_ 5 more seconds had passed.

Iruka was staring at the blonde with worried eyes. As he saw Naruto focusing hard, the Umino couldn't help but think that Uzumaki Naruto would fail at this jutsu yet again. _C'mon Naruto… Focus…!_

Hinata was watching the blonde with worried eyes also. She her hands into small, petite fists against her chest. She was silently praying that her friend would pass, and that this jutsu would not fail again.

"N-Naruto-kun…" She whispered silently.

Naruto felt his ears twitch slightly. It felt like someone was calling out to him, but he didn't know who. He had ignored it for now, and felt his charka coil densely into the core of his being. It had taken a bit of concentration, sweat, patience; but he had finally done it. Alright… Now to make the seals…

Naruto suddenly snapped his eyes open with determination written on his face. His hands made the signs of: Tiger, Boar, Ox, and Dog and he, yet again, exploded into a cloud of white.

Everyone started to wave away the smoke as they were curiously awaiting Naruto's failed or achieved jutsu. They all suddenly saw a blurry figure and leaned towards it, sweating with anticipation. When the smoke cleared, to their surprise, and Iruka's too, they all saw 5 identical Naruto's, standing at the front of the class room.

Naruto blinked in confusion as to why the classroom was in loud whispers. _What the…?_ Naruto started to slowly turn around, only to jump in surprise as he saw four clones of himself… standing right behind him!

"GAH!" The real blonde screamed and took a few steps back. His clones all started at him quizzically.

"IRUKA-SENSEI, HOW COME THERE ARE FOUR OF ME?!" Naruto screamed at his teacher while pointing an accusing finger at his clones. He got his answer with a fist to his hand, provided graciously by Umino Iruka himself.

"YOU IDIOT!" Iruka shouted, using his Big Head no Jutsu in the process. "YOU OBVIOUSLY SUMMONDED THEM, YOU BAKA!"

The class then erupted in boisterous laughter as they watched the two comically yell at each other. Hinata couldn't help but giggle and Sasuke gave a small chuckle.

"Oh really…?" Naruto suddenly went up to one and tried to pat his clone's cheek, put his hand passed right through. "Hey how come I can't touch them?"

Iruka sighed. "I explained it in class the Clone Jutsu is an _illusion_ jutsu. So that means you cannot touch your clones for they are _illusions_. Don't you pay attention in class Naruto?"

"Nope."

"I figured as much…" The chūnin hung his head gloomily. "Well, you pass so go get your hitai-ate then."

"Yatta!" Naruto cheered and ran up to his other sensei named Mizuki. Mizuki had shoulder-length, white hair that has a slight hint of blue to it and green eyes. He wears the standard attire of the regular Konoha-nin, which was a green flak jacket with red swirls on the sides of the shoulders.

"Congradulations Naruto, I knew you could do it." Mizuki said as he gave the blonde his much awarded ninja Forehead Protector.

"Thanks Mizuki-sensei! I won't let you down when I become a ninja, dattebayo!" Naruto smiled as he grabbed his hitai-ate from his sensei.

"Oh I'm sure you won't!" Naruto grinned and bowed towards Mizuki and ran back to his seat. Though he failed to notice the evil glint in Mizuki's eyes as the chūnin watched his retreating back as he ran away. "I'm sure you won't..."

* * *

Naruto jumped back into his seat, startling Hyuuga Hinata immensely. The lad put up his legs on his desk and tied the protector around his forehead. Once it was tightly tied and fit comfortable on his head, Naruto then leaned his head back to look at Hinata upside down.

"Look Hinata-chan!" He grinned as he pointed at his newly acquired hitai-ate which had the Leaf's insignia carved in the center of it. "I'm finally a ninja now! Isn't that cool?!"

Hinata nodded sheepishly as she stared into the eyes of her crush with a red blush staining her cheeks. "Y-Yes it is very good N-Naruto-kun. I-I am very proud of you." Naruto grins went a little wider as his cheeks tinged a barely visible color of pink and he started to scratch one cheek in embarrassment.

But his happiness was short lived once he heard Hinata sigh in disappointment.

"What's the matter Hinata-chan?" Naruto asked tilting his head in confusion. "You scared or something?"

Hinata nodded silently, but then shook her head and clutched her hands closer to her chest. Naruto suddenly leaned back up and turned around to face her; silently telling her to talk to him about it.

Hinata blushed at the attention, but began talking nonetheless. "I-I'm confident about my abilities on performing jutsu, b-but I can't help feel that if I mess up, father will get angry with m-me…"

Naruto furrowed his blonde eyebrows in thought. "What do you mean by that?"

Hinata sighed again and started to play with her fingers. "I-It's just that… F-Father thinks of me a-as a failure to the Hyuuga clan, j-just like everyone else… I-I've messed up so many t-times already, and I f-feel if I mess up this time…" She trailed off and her eyes started to water, making Naruto look up at her in shock and he strangely felt his heart start to break in two.

"Bullshit!" Naruto swore quietly, making Hinata jump in surprise by his brash language.

"Na-Naruto-kun!"

"Your old man must be pretty stupid if he can't see how cool you are!" Naruto growled out ignoring her comment and not noticing her immense blush that was spreading across her face rapidly. "You're strong, smart, and the most non-girlishly girl I have ever met! I'll be darned if anyone can't see that in you!"

Hinata deadpanned as she heard her crush call her "non-girly". _J-Just what does he m-mean by that…?_ Naruto took her deadpan as a sign that she wasn't feeling better. He decided to up the ante.

"Hinata."

The Hyuuga heiress looked up from her stupor to see the Uzumaki staring at her with bright, shimmering cerulean eyes as he smiled at her gently. Little did Naruto know, this look shaped his face handsomely as a few strands of his long blonde locks started to bellow in his face. His crossed arms were placed firmly on her desk and leaned forward making Hinata lean back at his sudden action.

"If you feel like you're not getting any better then…" He smiled a bit wider making some of his sparkling white teeth show. "…why don't we train together, ne?"

Hinata's face exploded into a color of crimson as she started to poke her fingers together nervously and splutter her words incoherently. The girls who were around them were staring at Naruto with surprise on their faces. They all blushed when they saw a face of his that they never knew the blonde boy could show.

After a few more students, Hinata went up next with Naruto cheering her on. She blushed heavily from embarrassment but started to do her jutsus nevertheless. She executed each one perfectly with little to no time. For her Substitution Jutsu, she replaced herself with a potted plant on the windowsill. For her Henge Jutsu, she turned into the Third Hokage himself; she had no flaws in his appearance. For her Clone Jutsu, she did three clones instead of the required one. Iruka complimented her chakra control, making the Hyuuga meekly bow with pink cheeks.

Mizuki complimented her as well and gave her hitai-ate and telling her to become a great kunoichi. Hinata responded with a yes and bow to him as well. As she made her way to her seat, she started to tie her Forehead Protector on. But instead of putting it on her forehead like most newly acquainted genin, Hinata tied it around her neck instead.

She sat down and Naruto smiled at her, making her look at him curiously.

"Y-Yes N-Naruto-kun?"

Naruto grinned. "You look cute with your hitai-ate around your neck."

Hinata's mind suddenly went blank. She froze and stared at him with only one thought crossing her mind._ Naruto-kun thinks I'm cute… Naruto-kun thinks I'm cute…! Naruto-kun thinks I'm cute!_

Once the final bell rung and Iruka dismissed class saying that he will be assigning genin teams tomorrow. Hinata promptly fainted right then and there in her seat, making Naruto jump up in surprise.

"Hinata-chan?! HINATA-CHAN! Oh no, not again!" Naruto shouted and jumped up next to her and started to shake her, hopefully to make her regain consciousness.

* * *

A bit later after Naruto managed to shake awake the unconscious Hinata. Naruto felt his eyes widen as he heard her moan and slowly open her pearly Hyuuga eyes. Her face glistened as she stirred awake and her small balled up fists started to paw at her cheeks.

_She looks like a kitten…_ Naruto thought, his cheeks burning dark pink, unbeknownst to him.

He proved his point of his theory when the heiress mewled like a kitten, effectively making Naruto catch his breath. Once she got her bearings, Hinata blushed as she found out she was in Naruto's arms.

She couldn't understand why Naruto looked like he was choked up but she knew well enough that she should get out of his arms before she fainted again.

"K-KYAA!" She screamed and stuffed her hands in her face, making Naruto fall back and let her go.

Hinata breathed heavily as she managed to not faint but her face was really red and she gripped her hands for dear life. She watched as Naruto started to get back up, but with a red nose.

"Ouchouchouchouchouch!" He said while nursing his nose. He looked at Hinata incredulously. "What the heck was that for Hinata-chan?"

Hinata fidgeted and inhale deeply before speaking. "G-Gomen Naruto-k-kun… But I-I don't like t-to be held cl-close by people… I-It's very uncomfortable f-for me…" The truth was that Hinata didn't like to be held close by Naruto. One was being that she liked him, and two being that if anyone saw them, she would be thoroughly embarrassed.

Naruto, being the oblivious one he was, totally took the bait. "O-Oh! Sorry about that Hinata-chan! I didn't know that you didn't like to be held! I promise to try to not make you uncomfortable ever again!"

Hinata nodded hesitantly while giving him a small smile in return.

A few moments later, the duo decided to walk home together. Naruto said he was going in her direction so she wouldn't have to walk home alone. The orange clad genin was telling the timid girl a story of him pranking an unsuspecting Nara clan when they were stopped by someone calling out to them.

"Naruto, Hinata!"

The two turned to see Mizuki running up to them. He stopped once he was close enough and addressed them. "Hey Hinata, do you mind if I steal Naruto away from you a minute?"

"N-Not at all, Mizuki-sensei." She stammered.

The chūnin then led the young lad away and started to speak to him. "Naruto, I couldn't help but notice you struggling with your Clone Jutsu technique."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. "So you saw that? Well to be honest sensei, I could use a little work…"

Mizuki grinned sadistically at the boy for a split second. All according to plan… He suddenly put on a mask of a warm and caring sensei again. "Well why don't you come over here tonight at 8 O'clock and I can discuss a special training regimen that can improve your abilities tenfold."

Naruto's eyes widened in surprise. "You would really do that for me Mizuki-sensei?"

"Of course! Anything for my students!" Mizuki grinned, but inside the blue haired chūnin was laughing manically. "But the thing is, you can't tell anyone okay. It's just between you and me."

"Yosh!" Naruto yelled giving a salute to him. "I won't tell a soul! You can count on me!" The blonde then ran over to Hinata and started to walk with her, not even pondering once about what he has been told.

Once they were far enough, Mizuki laughed manically and looked at the sky with insanity written over his features. "What a gullible idiot! Konoha won't know what hit them once I get my hands on the Forbidden Scroll!" And the insane shinobi laughed all the way home, and got himself ready for tonight.

**OH NOES! WHAT'S GONNA HAPPEN TO NARUTO! WILL HINATA BE INVOLVED?! NOES! But anyway, please review down below and give me some ideas if you could! I'd really appreciate it! See ya soon!**


	3. S-Class Secret Revealed!

**The Evolution of Love**

S-Class Secret Revealed!

Naruto stared at the clock in his bedroom as the time started to tick away the seconds. Naruto had dropped off Hinata at her house not too long ago. During the duration of their walk, Hinata had asked what Mizuki had wanted.

"Aww, he was just lecturin' me on some other stuff I should work on." Naruto lied as he waved off the situation as not important. He hoped Hinata didn't press the situation further; he was lucky since Hinata totally believed him.

Once he dropped her off, a guy named Hyuuga Ko had escorted Hinata inside. Naruto remembered him staring at Naruto with narrowed eyes, but he just waved slightly shocking the branch member.

Naruto sighed at the memory. _It looks like Iruka-sensei was right after all… It's gonna take a bit of time for people to accept me…_ He snapped out of his thoughts once he heard the clock ring, signaling that it was 8 O' clock.

"Alright!" Naruto grinned as he punched his fist into his hand. "It's time to go meet Mizuki sensei!" Naruto slapped the alarm clock, cutting it off, and the boy jumped out of his balcony, hopping over the building with silent bounds.

A bit later, Naruto saw Mizuki leaning against the Academy's front door, waving the blonde boy over.

"Naruto! Glad you could make it!" Mizuki smiled warmly at the boy.

"Hey Mizuki-sensei! I'm ready for my special training regimen now!" Naruto grinned as he stopped in front of his sensei with his small ponytail kicking out behind him.

"I'm sure you are!" _You gullible idiot…! Heh Heh! Once I get what I want, everyone will even hate you more and you'll be forced to become a rogue ninja for the rest of your days_! "Ready to get started to become a great ninja!" Mizuki smiled putting a hand on Naruto's shoulder.

"Yatta! So what do I do first sensei?" Naruto asked, smiling excitedly.

Mizuki's eyes gave off a sadistic glint as he started to whisper into the Jinchuriki's left ear.

Naruto hopped atop the Hokage tower and managed to slip into the ventilation system through the top roof. He slinked through the airways, making sure his movements were silent and unnoticeable.

He proceeded onwards, thinking about what Mizuki had said to him.

FLASBACK

"Alright Naruto, as a part of your regimen, you must take hold of the Forbidden Scroll in the Hokage tower." The chūnin instructed.

Naruto tilting his head in confusion. "But won't everyone see me taking it?"

The blue haired man shook his head. "No because you'll be stealthy about it. You'll sneak in through the ventilation system on top of the tower and go through the airways 'till you will see a room where a single scroll lay dormant."

"Now remember Naruto," Mizuki said before the blonde could speak again, "everyone knows about this but they are testing you if you can truly be stealthy like a ninja could. Now then, are you up for it?"

Naruto pumped up his arm and flexed it. "You know it sensei! Or my name isn't Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!"

FLASHBACK OVER

The lad started to peer into the openings he found along the way to see if he could find the scroll. No such luck yet.

"Oi… When am I gonna find that stupid scroll…?" Naruto grumbled angrily as he started to look into another. To his luck, this was what the room Mizuki was talking about.

Naruto grinned. "I finally found it!" He quietly propped off the vent's top and lowered his head down to look around the room. He didn't see anyone so the blonde then lowered himself down and quietly landed down blow with a soft thud.

He then snatched the scroll, opened the single window in the room, and escaped by hopping into the night.

"Now I just have to meet Mizuki-sensei at that shed he mentioned then I'll be in the clear!" Naruto smiled triumphantly and gripped the scroll tighter. "And I'll be even stronger than before!"

A few hops later, Naruto was on the outskirts of the forest, waiting for Mizuki at the designated area where they agreed on. Naruto sighed as he became bored with nothing to do.

"This is boring…" Naruto yawned, patting his mouth. He suddenly stared at the scroll and shrugged. "Oh what the heck, might as well see what's in this thing."

And the Uzumaki began looking through the scroll to see what he could learn.

* * *

Meanwhile at the Hokage Tower, the sirens alarmed alerting the shinobi and public. Most shinobi went to the Hokage's office while others stayed behind to guard the village.

Iruka was among the ones that were called. "What seems to be the problem Hokage-sama?" He asked with worriedness in his voice.

Sarutobi sighed and blew on his pipe. Everyone could see the old man manage to acquire a few more years in the matter of seconds. They all gulped; if the predicament was this bad to cause the Hokage trouble, then what would happen to the village…?

The Sandaime blew another smoke ring before answering. "It seems that Uzumaki Naruto has stolen the Forbidden Scroll…" The room immediately uproared with whispers of hatred, disgust, and pity.

"Wh-What?!" Iruka shouted in disbelief. "Why would Naruto do such a thing?!"

Sarutobi shook his head. "I do not know Iruka. But nevertheless, the boy must be captured. I'm ordering all available shinobi to make the capture of Uzumaki Naruto and the Forbidden Scroll. You are dismissed." And all of the ninja in the room disappeared.

Iruka hopped along the roofs heading towards the direction of the forest. He had a pretty good suspicion of where Naruto was located at. _Hopefully I get there first…_ Iruka thought, pleading in silent prayer. _Oh Naruto, I hope you have done anything bad to come up with such a heinous act like this…!_

* * *

Naruto panted as he just finished succeeding an A-rank jutsu in the Forbidden Scroll. He smiled thinking of what everyone would say once he would show this new accomplishment to them.

"Heh. Now maybe Sasuke-teme and everyone else will see how great I am!" Naruto smiled at the thought as he leaned against the shed.

But suddenly there was a rustling in the bushes. Naruto sat up at attention, staring at the green shrubs with skeptical eyes. He then calmed down as he saw his teacher, Umino Iruka; walk over to him looking… a bit miffed…?

"Naruto, there you are!" Iruka yelled to him as he quickened his pace.

Naruto smiled cheerfully and stood up to greet his teacher. "Yo Iruka-sensei! Hey, come and look at this! I just learned a new jutsu from—!" But before the blonde could finish his sentence, Iruka had smacked him square on the head.

The Jinchuriki stared at his teacher in shock. "You idiot, what has possessed you to steal the Hokage's Forbidden Scroll!" Iruka screamed at the blonde with his dark eyes blazing with anger. "Everything has gone haywire because of your reckless act!"

Naruto shook his head, getting out of his shocked stupor. Then he suddenly rounded on Iruka with his finger pointed accusingly at him. "What the hell do you mean by that?! Wasn't this apart of the Genins'-Specialized-Regimen-Test or whatever?!"

Iruka immediately froze his chastisement of the boy, and stared at his quizzically. "Genin-Specialized-Regimen-Test? What's that?"

Naruto looked at Iruka as if he had grown a second head. "What's that?! That's the test you and Mizuki-sensei were designed to give to genin who showed promise right?"

Iruka froze. He felt the blood in his system suddenly turn colder. He couldn't believe it! Mizuki had set Naruto up! Not only that, but he managed to get the whole village involved with it too! The duo suddenly turned around when they both heard a bone-chilling laugh.

Mizuki was dressed in his usual Konoha shinobi attire but he suddenly had a bandana on and wore a sadistic grin that made Naruto shiver involuntarily.

"So, you've finally figured it out, eh Iruka?" The blue haired chūnin sneered.

"Mizuki…" Iruka clenched his hands into fists. "Why… Why would you trick Naruto, one of our own students, into doing something soo… soo trivial!"

Mizuki suddenly glared at his former college. "**Trivial!** How **dare** you so something that is more important than your worthless life!" Naruto suddenly shot daggers at his deranged sensei.

"HEY! Don't talk about Iruka-sensei like that!"

Mizuki ignored the boy and continued. "The Hokage's Forbidden Scroll holds many secrets of the most powerful jutsus!" He suddenly looked at his now spread opened hands. "And once I have it… I'll be unstoppable!"

"Apparently your judgment is still incorrect Mizuki," Iruka chided, making the other chūnin ball his hands into fists and glare once again at his old friend, "it is not the jutsu that makes the shinobi strong, but his compassion and his Will of Fire."

Mizuki started to chuckle after a few moments, and then began warbling with full scale maniacal laughter. "_Compassion? Will of Fire?_ You amuse me along with everyone else with their little fantasies!" Mizuki grinned. "All of just go chase after something that is not real with your hinds completely visible to the enemy!" Mizuki then snapped his head around and stared at Naruto with malice in his eyes. "Oh, but I do believe that this boy has a lot of fire than anyone else in the village!"

Iruka became confused at first by Mizuki's strange statement, but caught on as quickly as it came. "Mizuki… You are seriously not planning to…!"

Oh, but the man was. Mizuki suddenly threw kunai knifes too fast for Iruka to block. The knives impaled his legs, arms, and managed to slice the tendons that connected his arms to his shoulders. He was suddenly brought down onto one knee and blood started to trickle down the corner of his mouth.

"IRUKA-SENSEI!" Naruto shouted and quickly ran over to his injured teacher with the large scroll in a tow. He glared coldly at Mizuki as the man laughed.

"You think you can just fit in with everyone else and be _normal_, boy?! You have something in you that makes everyone hate you in this weak little village!" Mizuki shouted at the blonde, his voice practically dripping with insanity.

Naruto cringed at the words. Iruka saw this and looked at Mizuki with blazing eyes of fury. "MIZUKI, DON'T! You will not reveal this secret! It is too secretive and dangerous beyond our own ears!"

Mizuki ignored the brunette man and began his diabolical assault. "You want to know why you'll never have friends? Why no one will _ever_ accept you?" The former teacher laughed. "Well then, let me spin you a little tale, boy! Once upon a time, 13 years ago, the Village Hidden in the Leaves was under attack by the Nine-Tailed Fox…"

"Mizuki! Stop this at once!" Iruka tried to move, by found himself collapsing into Naruto's awaiting arms. He was too injured to do anything.

"…The shinobi reacted and fought to the last breath. Many of the _brave_ shinobi died in the battle. But then one man, named the Fourth Hokage, suddenly captured the beast, and sealed it inside of an infant child…"

"MIZUKI! I'M WARNING YOU! IF YOU SAY ANOTHER WORD, I'LL—!"

"And that child was me right?"

Both Mizuki and Iruka stared at the blonde boy in shock. Naruto was staring at Mizuki with a face that both of them thought the boy couldn't do. His face was… emotionless…

Mizuki was the first one to get out of the shock. "How did you know?! I thought that file was kept under—!"

"**S-CLASS SECRET: DO NOT OPEN.** **SUBJECT: THE MYSTERY OF THE KYUUBI NO KITSUNE…** That was the one that it was kept in right? Looks like it's not so secrety anymore, is it?" Naruto snorted.

This made two reactions happen. One, Iruka looked at Naruto with surprise and shock written all over his features. His dark eyes widened as his mouth started to gaped open and close like a fish. Two, Mizuki just growled at Naruto with malice, murder, and interest on his face.

"How the hell do you know about that?!" Mizuki demanded.

Naruto smirked at the short tempered chūnin. "My, my, don't you have a short fuse Mizuki-_sensei!_" Naruto spat out the last part. "Now you shut up and sit back as I tell you my own tale…"

_FLASHBACK_

It was the middle of summer in Konohagakure. The skies were clear, the sun was bright, the birds were chirping, and the village bustled with people coming in and out of places. Yes, everything seemed normal in the Hidden Leaf… but not so much in fact that it was actually sweltering outside and heat waves could be seen here and there.

Naruto was laying on the grass of a training field, panting and sweating up a storm. The boy had been practicing to improve his Clone technique and taijutsu ever since dawn had first arrived. He laid on the grassy floor with his orange jacket unzipped and his bare chest completely exposed to the hot air. Naruto glared at the sky while taking in deep breaths.

"Damn heat…" He grumbled as he shielded his blue eyes with a hand. "…why does it have to be soo hot today…!" And to make the day worst for the blonde, Hinata and all of their friends were either gone on family business, or were busy today.

"Stupid vacations… Stupid work…" Naruto sighed and turned on his side. "I wish they didn't have to do all that stuff so we could all spend time together… for once…"

For a few minutes, Naruto was just lying on the field, looking around, enjoying the breeze the winds gave him, but also sulked at the fact that his friends wasn't here with him. Later he got up and started to stretch. He was fed up with being unaccompanied with, so he decided to just walk around Konoha; seeing what the sights had to offer him.

As Naruto was walking around, looking at the buildings and what people were doing, he couldn't help but notice that there were still some people glaring at him.

_Why are there still people looking at me that way…?_ Naruto couldn't help but be curious as to why he was still looked at as a… monster… _I've made many friends with a lot of villagers, but some keep glaring at me… And they get worse on my birthdays too…_

Naruto suddenly pricked up. His birthday! That was it! If the villagers that still hated him got super cranky on his birthdays, then something happened that was soo significant, it impacted the village this harshly. He needed to get more evidence of this breakthrough.

The blonde started to run towards the library, once he got there, he bursted through the doors and started to swiftly make his way towards the librarian.

She looked up at him. "Oh, hey there Naruto, what can I help you with?" A week ago, Naruto had managed to make Konoha's librarians see that he wasn't soo bad. So he now had access to the library's books.

"Uh, hey there nii-chan…" Naruto said nervously. "Do you know where the history books are?" The librarian blinked at him, but started to look at the books organization files nevertheless.

"Let's see, let's see… Ah! History books are in isle 17, section 3."

"Thanks!" Naruto started to briskly make his way over to the designated area. He started to look up books that had to do with the date, October 10th. He suddenly found an old book with a file sticking out of it.

"Huh?" Naruto looked around, only to see no one in his section but him. It was eerily dark, and a little of the lights had bugs, making them flicker frequently. Something told the lad not to read this book, but Naruto did anyway.

He found an old desk with a desk lap in the corner of the desk's surface. He blew off the dust on the desk, sat down, and blew off the dust on the book in his hands.

"Let's see what's in this thing." Naruto opened up the book and began to read.

_The Night of the Nine-Tails' Attack_

_It's October the 10__th__, a dread day if you ask me. Our numbers are low, many have died, and families are spilt and torn apart; grieving for their loved ones they have lost…_

Naruto cringed slightly as he had read the first part. Something in the back of his mind told him that it was going to get worse.

_The attack had just happened out of nowhere. I don't know how that beast managed to get out of its Jinchuriki's seal, but I can tell you that the damage was… significant…_

_Buildings destroyed, fires everywhere, trees uprooting in strange and random places, people screaming in fear and panic, and the dead bodies… Numerous and horrendous… That fox has caused soo much pain, I don't know where to start; but the Yondaime Hokage-sama has managed to neutralize it, but I don't know how… No one has a clue if it's dead, or if another Jinchuriki host has it shackled again. But I know that, the damages will cost a lot and the reconstruction process will be slow…_

Naruto stared in shock. He had no idea that his birthday was soo… gruesome… No wonder people hated him, he was born on the day the Kyuubi had managed to mess up the village's lives. Before Naruto could close the book and call it a day, the file he had seen early had managed to squeeze out a little.

Curious, the whiskered boy started to reach for it only to be hit by a wave of coldness, malice, and fear.

Suddenly, a dark and evil voice cackled in the back of his brain. _**Ha ha ha… Yes, boy… take the file… read it… learn about whom you really are… take it…**_

Naruto suddenly reeled back and clutched at his chest. His heart was beating fast from some unknown reason, his blue eyes were dilated, his body was shaking, and he was gasping for breaths of air. Naruto realized that he was… scared…

_What the hell was that?!_ Naruto thought, looking around to see if someone was messing with him. Nobody was there.

_**Take it… take it… take it, Naruto… you know you want to… you cannot resist…**_The dark voice boomed inside of his head, persuading Naruto to read the file.

Sadly, it worked. Naruto found that his hands were moving towards the file unconsciously, and his eyes widened once he read the title.

"**S-CLASS SECRET: DO NOT OPEN. SUBJECT: THE MYSTERY OF THE KYUUBI NO KITSUNE.**" Naruto read barely above a whisper.

Naruto hesitantly opened the file and began to read. "_The Kyuubi no Kitsune, or called, the Nine-Tailed fox. A tailed beast that has ravaged the Village Hidden in the Leaves, for generations. When captured, the Nine-Tails is transferred inside of a newborn infant to be locked away where it can do no harm. However, the infant is considered a Jinchuriki, or the-host-of-a-tailed-beast for short._"

Naruto's eyebrows furrowed in thought, but he continued to read. "_The attack of the Nine-Tails on the date of October 10__th__, 13 years ago, was unknown. Rumors have spread that someone was controlling it, but we have no evidence of the situation. The current Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox is Uzumaki Naruto…_"

Naruto eyes widened and fell back out of his seat in shock. He looked at his hands as if he had been burned.

_The current Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox is Uzumaki Naruto… Jinchuriki of the Nine-Tailed Fox is Uzumaki Naruto… Uzumaki Naruto… Uzumaki Naruto… Uzumaki Naruto… __**is**__ the Nine-Tailed Fox…_

Naruto clutched his head and started to rock back and forward. "No wonder everyone hates me… I'm the host of the beast that had almost destroyed the village…"

Naruto only blinked but he found himself in a dark, and dimly lit hallway. The floors had numerous puddles that were murky and scary looking. He suddenly heard a low growling sound coming from up ahead. Always the curious and oblivious one, Naruto started to walk towards it without a second thought.

He entered a room that had more water that was ankle deep. He saw giant red bars that had an old looking seal that was plastered in the center of it. The water rippled at the growls resonated and clashed against it.

"**Come closer boy…"** A dark voice commanded Naruto.

Naruto complied but with hesitant, and slow steps. He only took four steps when three humongous white claws suddenly thrashed at him, only to be held back by the cage and miss Naruto by an inch. Naruto yelped in surprise and fell on his bottom in the murky water.

The voice growled in anger and retracted his claws. **"It seems that this cage keeps me binded from doing you any harm… Tsk. Too bad, I was really looking forward to killing you…"**

After he regained himself, Naruto jumped up and pointed an accusing finger at the cage. "WHAT THE HELL?! WHY DID YOU DO THAT?! WHO ARE YOU?!"

The voice suddenly erupted in laughter that rattled the whole foundation. Naruto had to hold his footing from falling again. **"Who am I…? Who am I? Puny human, did you not just read about me, or are you as stupid as you look?"**

Naruto cringed at the voice's words. Not because of the insult, but because of what he was told before that. "S-So that means… y-you're…"

A huge, red, and bloodshot eye suddenly appeared staring down at Naruto. And a row of sharp and deadly teeth also made its appearance, creeping Naruto out. **"Yes, I AM the Nine-Tailed Fox; and you, unfortunately, are my host… Uzumaki Naruto!"**

Naruto eyes widened as his mouth suddenly went agape. The Nine-Tails chuckled at the boy's expense. **"Shocking isn't it? Not many have the privilege of keeping a strong tailed-beast, such as me, in their bodies."**

"I wouldn't call it a privilege…" Naruto muttered.

"**What was that?!"**

Naruto sighed. "No offense, well a lot of offense actually, but you're crazy. You almost destroyed my village!"

"**It was not like I wanted to, I was **_**forced**_** to you insolent brat!"** The Kyuubi growled. **"It was all that **_**Uchiha's **_**fault! Imprisoning me with his cowardly jutsu of his! If I see him again, I'll wrap my claws around him and rip him apart!"**

Naruto suddenly blinked in surprise. "Wait, did you just say _Uchiha_?"

"**Yes! Are you sheep brained boy?!"**

Naruto ignored the insult. "As in, _Uchiha Sasuke_?"

The Kyuubi's eye narrowed. **"Who is this **_**Uchiha Sasuke**_**? I have never heard of such a name. And I wasn't talking about this Uchiha Sasuke of yours, I was talking about **_**Uchiha Madara**_**!"**

"Uchiha Madara? Who's that?"

The Nine-Tails suddenly roared making Naruto scream and falling yet again. **"I have no time to entertain a 9-year old about the man I wish to destroy! Go and leave me! I will tell you who he is later! But right now, I wish to not hear your whimpering voice!"**

The red fox roared yet again, making Naruto get sucked back into reality. He blinked and felt his eyes drop in weariness. He was confused at the moment, but right now, the last Uzumaki wanted to get some rest.

_FLASHBACK END_

Mizuki and Iruka's eyes widened in surprise. Not only did Naruto manage to figure who and what the Nine-Tails is, he had also managed to actually communicate with the beast.

Mizuki growled and his eyes narrowed with malice. Naruto just grinned at him. No way was the man going to get intimidated by an upstart like this failure. He was going to make sure he killed the brat and take the Forbidden Scroll for himself.

"I don't care if you have Kami himself inside of you, you're not going to strip away my dream of becoming the strongest shinobi!" Mizuki reached for his giant shuriken and chucked it at Naruto. The boy didn't have enough to shield himself, but he had managed to push Iruka out of the way in time.

Naruto was suddenly cut in half and his remnants, splatted on the ground below.

"NARUTO!" Iruka screamed as he watched his favorite student get killed right before his very eyes.

Mizuki laughed. "1 down," he suddenly turned his attention to a distraught Iruka, "1 more to go!"

Before the insane chūnin could reach for his other shuriken, a sharp whistle had grabbed both of the men's attention. They turned to see hundreds of Naruto's surround them; grinning at Mizuki with determination in their cerulean eyes. "Looks like you fell for my Substitution Jutsu, eh Mizuki?" They all said simultaneously.

Mizuki looked back at the spot where he had supposedly "killed" Naruto. He then paled, looked back at the Narutos, and shrank back in fear as he scanned how many there were. "Oh shit…"

They all grinned maliciously and their eyes glinted evilly as they cracked their knuckles. "Let's have some _fun_, shall we Mizuki-_sensei_?!" And before the blue haired chūnin could react, he was suddenly covered in a pile of orange.

* * *

The rays of light signified that morning was approaching. Naruto had his clones wrap up a battered and beaten Mizuki and look over him until some ANBU arrived. In the midst of this, the real Naruto was busy wrapping up Iruka's immobile arms with gauze.

"Naruto… Thank you…" Iruka said suddenly after a few minutes of silence.

"Yeah sure, no problem!" Naruto smiled. "The wound oughta heal up real soon, so don't worry!"

Iruka shook his head, confusing the blonde whiskered boy. "No, not that. I mean… thank you for being, you…"

"Eh?"

Iruka chuckled. "Nothing, nothing…" They went into silence again for a few seconds before Iruka broke it again. "Naruto, I know you'll do great things one day."

Naruto's eyes sparkled when he was finished patching Iruka up. "EH!? REALLY IRUKA-SENSEI?!"

"Yes, yes." The brunette cringed at the volume of the lad's voice. "And if we really had a Genin-Specialized-Regimen-Test, I'm pretty sure you would pass it with flying colors."

Naruto grinned so wide, its glow could have made the sun jealous. He suddenly tackled his injured teacher into a bug bear hug. "WHOOHOO! Thanks soo much Iruka-sensei!"

"Okay, okay Naruto! Y-You're very welcome! Ouch ouch! Okay, you can stop hugging me now!"

After 15 minutes or so, the ANBU had finally arrived and took Mizuki into custody after seeing Iruka's wounds and that he was tied to a post. They were about to take Naruto for questioning until Iruka had explained and cleared that it was Mizuki that had tricked the boy into stealing the Hokage's Forbidden Scroll. Iruka was then later brought to the hospital, courtesy Naruto, and was treated for his wounds. He wouldn't be out after a week or so, but the teacher had promised the Jinchuriki a big bowl of ramen once he got out.

Although Naruto had had a traumatizing event, and his teacher was out in the hospital for quite some time; he couldn't help but feel elated that he was a hero of stopping a diabolic man's scheme, and learn a new jutsu in the process.

* * *

Next Time, on the Evolution Of Love: Team's Selected!

* * *

**HEY HEY EVERYBODY! Howzit going you guys?! Anyway, I need some ideas for ya!**

**1) Should I keep Naruto in Team 7 or Team 8?**

**2) If Naruto was in Team 7, should I keep it the same, or remove a character and add Hinata in there with him?**

**3) If Naruto became a member of Team 8, should he be: Naruto, Hinata, and Shino OR Naruto, Hinata, Kiba, and Akamaru?**

**So please review this and give me YOUR OPINIONS on the questions up top! If you have sneezed through this whole endeavor then GOD BLESS THINE FACE! Anyway, see you bras later in my next story, PEACE!**


	4. Intermission

**Hey everybody! It's me, The Open-Eyed Day Dreamer! Sorry I haven't been able to write for sometime, but I've been having difficulty getting my stories in motion (ya know, writer's block and all...). **

**And also *sigh* trying to figure out which team to pick out for you guys... But, I do have good news to say that I will be publishing my stories very soon!**

**YAY!**

**I may publish it this weekend or somewhere next week... Dunno but I know that it will probably be publish before May's out. So, NO NEED TO WORRY!**

**Alright, If you have sneezed through this then GOD BLESS YOUR FACE! Okay then, Ja ne my bros and bras!**

[_]


	5. Team's Selected!

**The Evolution of Love**

Team's Selected!

_**Nine-Tails/Kyuubi's thoughts inside of Naruto.**_

_Thinking (for anyone)/ Indention._

**Nine-Tails/Kyuubi speaking.**

It was a sunny day in the Village Hidden in the Leaves. The birds chirping, leaves rustling by the wind providing them gentle breezes, and the loud productivity of civilians and ninjas could be heard miles away from the village's walls. Our favorite #1 hyperactive knuckleheaded ninja, Uzumaki Naruto, was not one of them. Instead, the blonde could be seen sipping tea on his patio while reading a book.

…Wait… sipping tea…? READING A BOOK?!

The preteen was reading a historic book about the Uchiha's. Ever since he had his little "talk" with the Kyuubi, the demon's words had never left his mind. The Nine-Tails had told Naruto all he knew about the strange man one evening. He had mentioned that this Madara had unbelievably remarkable powers that he has never seen before. So the beast had warned Naruto to stay away from the guy because one, the Kyuubi wanted to take the man for himself, and two, because Madara was dangerous. Naruto kept reading as he wore a long-sleeved blue shirt with red spirals at the shoulders, blue movable pants, and a black bracelet with one red swirl attached at one end. He was letting his hair loose today like every other day when he was at home.

Naruto looked down at his attire and smiled. Mel had given him these clothes and accessories, and she said that they somehow matched him perfectly. Naruto agreed hastily and took them with gratefulness alighting his features. He didn't know how or why, but the clothes had some sort of connection to him… Like they meant something that was very important…

He shook his head. "No use figuring out what it means," the blonde said as his piercing blue eyes trained upon his book once more, "I've gotta figure more about who this Uchiha Madara character is…" He started to flip through the pages of the book until two names caught his eyes.

_The Senju Clan and the Uchiha Clan conflicts of Konoha._

"Huh?" Naruto began to read.

_The Senju and Uchiha Clans are known for having many conflicts with one another. Their fights would be brute and hostile; they would have wars amongst themselves, creating devastation for the Village Hidden in the Leaves._

Naruto's eyes widened. He couldn't believe that only two clans would be able to cause soo much destruction, that it was actually recorded in a book to tell the tales of how bad it was.

_But after some recent faltering of violence of the Senju Clan, the Senju's leader, which was the First Hokage, they asked the Uchiha Clan's leader, Uchiha Madara, to sign a treaty of peace between the two clans._

Naruto suddenly jumped up from his seat, knocking over his tea. "It's Madara! He was the leader of the Uchiha Clan?!" He couldn't believe it. The way the Nine-Tails had spoken of the man, it sounded like this Madara was evil or something. The blonde couldn't wrap his head around this situation.

Before the confused Naruto to read some more about the mysterious Uchiha, his alarm clock beeped to tell him that the Ninja Academy was about to start soon. Naruto jumped and quickly cleaned up his mess. He started to put on his sandals, hairband, and he grabbed his hitai-ate. He walked over to the mirror, put on his Forehead protector, and let his two long strands of blonde hair hang over his headband.

He looked at himself in the mirror. Naruto grinned. "Lookin' great as always!" The blonde then ran out the door, closed it and activated his defenses, and bounded away atop of the roofs to the Ninja Academy.

* * *

Hinata was busy putting on her usual garments on so she could get ready for school. Hinata was a Hyuuga that was born into the main branch. Hyuuga's that were born in that district had royal power over the lesser branches that consisted in the Hyuuga household. Hinata was called lady, princess, or most high. And she hated it.

Hinata was a kind and gentle girl. She wanted to live a simple life with no worries or problems. Sort of like the lazy Nara Shikamaru in her class; but alas, ever since she was born into the main branch she was constantly faced with situations each day.

The dark haired girl quickly got her Forehead Protector and tied it around her neck. She went to a mirror and looked at herself.

_I… I can't believe it… I'm finally a shinobi…_ Hinata smiled and clenched her hands against her chest. _Alright! I will do my best to please Father and Naruto-kun!_ Hinata then came out of her room and went down the hallway at a quick but brisk pace.

_Hopefully I can be able to be assigned to a team with Naruto-kun!_ Hinata blush hard at the thought and found herself jogging through the main branch's household. She suddenly saw her father, Hyuuga Hiashi; appear from the corner just as she was starting to turn there. Both of their eyes widened until Hinata did something that neither of them were expecting.

She suddenly spun around on one foot and found herself running past her father without running into him. "U-Umm, sorry Father, b-but I have to go to the A-Academy to get assigned for my t-team. S-Sorry again!" She didn't know how or why that happened, but she was glad that she didn't have to confront her father so she would hear him berate her yet again.

On the other hand, Hiashi was staring at his eldest daughter with surprise and shock. Surprise being that Hinata was eager to go to the Ninja Academy and that she had barely stuttered, and was shocked to see her perform the beginnings of a technique that was taught throughout the main household for generations.

What Hinata had just performed, hadn't began for Hiashi until he was the age of 14. "Did she just perform the beginning actions of _Rotation_…?" He shook his head. "No… it must be my imagination." Imagination or not, the clan head couldn't help but wonder if Hinata truly possessed the prowess of learning the clan's ultimate technique.

* * *

Naruto was gaining ever so close to the Academy with new vigor powering his strides. He couldn't wait to go to class today, which was a first for him and everybody else. As he was walking, Naruto began thinking of what type of team that he might be on.

"I wonder if I'll have a really strong team…" Naruto smiled. "I hope I have a team with Sakura-chan… or Hinata-chan!" Then Naruto's face suddenly twisted into a sour one. "… but I really hope that I don't have Sasuke-teme! Thinks he acts so cool, that jerk!"

After his long bout of griping, Naruto found himself standing in front of his classroom. Surprised, he slid open the door and began proceeding to his desk. He felt his neck hairs prick up as his other classmates that were present stared at him. They were used to seeing Konoha's #1 hyperactive knuckleheaded ninja wearing a blinding uniform of orange. But today he was wearing a plain blue attire that seemed to be… almost normal looking…

The Uzumaki sat down in his seat and looked to his right. It was empty. That meant Hinata wasn't here yet. He sighed and slumped in his desk and began playing with the cuffs of his shirt. Hinata always sat in the inside of their desk with Naruto and some other kid flanking her on each side.

_It's strange not seeing Hinata-chan here yet…_ Naruto thought as he stared at a wall with boredom. _She's usually here before me…_ He suddenly sat up. _What if she got in trouble? Got hurt on the way and no one was there to help her?! I've gotta go see if she's alright!_ Before Naruto could even stand up out of his desk, a shadow suddenly loomed over him. He blinked and looked up to see a maximum of 5 girls standing right beside him.

They all stared at him with their cheeks looking pink, and they began fidgeting with their clothes too. Were they sick? Was something crawling in their garments? Naruto didn't know but he was confused. He raised a blonde brow and addressed them.

"Is there something you girls want from me?"

They all jumped and suddenly squealed, making Naruto jump in turn. They all crowded in one group and began talking loudly amongst themselves.

"Kyaa! He actually talked to us!" One girl squealed to the others.

"I know! Did you see how he was looking at us?!"

"And he asked us if we _wanted_ something from _him_!"

At the last remark, they squealed loudly once again, making Naruto and the other boys wince at their volume. Sure these girls were loud, but they weren't as loud as Sasuke's fangirls; which by the way, were already flocking around the brooding boy like moths to a flame.

The door slid opened once again, catching Naruto's attention and he saw Hinata walk in the classroom. He instantly beamed and started to wave at her, ignoring his own group of fangirls.

"Hey Hinata, over here!" He shouted at her.

* * *

She jumped and looked in his direction. She gave her own tiny smile and wave and began walking towards him. As she neared, she couldn't help but notice the girls that were surrounding him. And she also noticed that they were all glaring at her, making the shy girl shrink back in fear.

Though Hinata was hesitant and afraid, Naruto didn't seem to notice. He on the other hand, was glad to see that she was alright. He grinned with his famous closed-eyed expression slapped happily on his face.

"C'mon Hinata-chan, sit by me! I have such a weird story to tell you!" Naruto beamed as he patted the empty seat next to him.

Hinata was hesitant at first, because of the dirty looks she was receiving from the 5 girls, but she complied to Naruto's wish nonetheless. She felt safe whenever he was near and she was always happy when he would always give her the time of day to be with him. As she started to slide next to her crush, she was suddenly yanked back out, and was harshly pushed against the wall.

The girl had very long and thick brown hair that was tied into two pony tails, and some of her back hair was clipped up against her head. She also had her Forehead Protector around her neck and she wore a long sleeved light green shirt with dark green fringes, she had dark green pants, and standard blue unisex ninja sandals to boot.

She grinned smugly at the Hyuuga heiress. "Sorry there _princess_," she bit out the last word, "but _I'm_ going to be sitting by Naruto-kun. You don't mind that, do you?"

Hinata didn't like violence. She didn't like confrontations. She didn't like fighting. And she definitely didn't like bullies. But since she was so shy, she felt helpless. She didn't have a strong enough voice like her beloved Naruto at all. She couldn't yell to save her life. So when she saw the malice and judgment of this girl's eyes, she instantly shrank back in fear. She remembered this girl. Hitomi, that was her name. Hitomi would always be Hinata's bully; calling her names, making fun of her clothes, and sneering at her demeanor.

Hinata slowly shook her head and looked away from her assaulter. Hitomi smirked at the shy girl. "Now aren't you nice? Thanks Hinata, you can go sit somewhere else now, _bye_." At the last word, it seemed the bluenette was being ordered by the brunette. But since her personality took over, Hinata complied without a word, and went away to find somewhere else to sit. And not once, did she look at Naruto.

* * *

Naruto watched Hinata leave with a frown. He had seen the whole thing with her and that other girl. Although he couldn't hear what they were saying, he saw that Hinata's face looked scared and afraid and her body was shaking, if only a little bit. And when they were done, Hinata was quickly walking away to another seat, with his blue eyes following her. She sat by Kiba with Akamaru lying atop his head, and both were shocked to see her next by them. But nevertheless, Naruto saw Kiba immediately try to strike up a conversation with the heiress.

"… ru… Naru… Naruto… Naruto-kun!" Said boy twitched and looked over to see Hinata's bully call his name. His frown deepened even more. He watched her take his right arm and look at him with tiny hearts shining in her eyes.

"Are you alright, Naruto-kun?" She asked him while squeezing his arm. "You look a bit… distracted…"

Before he could answer and interrogate her about her assaults on Hinata, Iruka came in and told the class to calm down. Iruka saw Naruto being flanked by two girls who were clinging onto his arms, and three sitting just in front of him and were staring at him with shining eyes.

Iruka blinked in surprise. _It seems that Naruto has managed to wrangle up some of his own fangirls… Way to go Naruto…_ Iruka started to call the names of the students that had passed the Genin Exams and were now newly appointed shinobi into the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

Naruto on the other hand, was getting annoyed that his newly acquired fangirls were harping down his neck and argued about which one of them would hold which part of his arm or something. All he really wanted was for Hinata to just give a single glance his way. Ever since that supposed _"talk"_ with the girl named Hitomi (he recently found out when he asked her name. Then all the other girls gave him their names too.), Hinata hasn't even acknowledged that he was even sitting in their own spot. And whenever he stared at her, the other girls would notice and glare at Hinata, making the shy girl sense it and slump farther down her seat.

Naruto sighed and felt one of his feet tap irritably on the floor. _Hurry up Iruka-sensei and call my team! Put me on a team with Hinata please so that I can talk to her!_

"…Team 6 will consist of Hosokaya Daichi, Isumo Hitomi, and Fugirashi Gin. Your Jōnin instructor with be Higayami Masku."

"WHAT?!" Hitomi yelled as she stood up in anger. "How come I'm not on a team with Naruto-kun?!"

Iruka sighed. _Even if Naruto did get his own fangirls, they're still just as annoying as Sasuke's…_ "The reason being Hitomi is that your teams are designed to be totally and completely balanced. If I had to replace a student that would not weigh out your grades as you do, then the team would be dysfunctional and wouldn't work together as one squad. Think about it."

Hitomi growled in annoyance and begrudgingly sat back down in her seat. Naruto on the other hand was elated that he had gotten rid of one of his sticky fangirls and Hinata's assaulter.

_Yes! Now there's a chance of me being on Hinata's team!_ Naruto thought as his grin widened even more.

"Alright then," Iruka said continuing, "Team 7 will consist of Uzumaki Naruto, Hyuuga Hinata…"

"YATTA!" Naruto cheered as he suddenly springed up from his seat with his fists pumped into the air. He thanked kami that luck was going his way.

"NARUTO!" Iruka yelled while using his _Big Head no jutsu_. "I WASN'T FINISHED YET SO SIT DOWN!" Naruto felt sweat dripping down his face as he lowered his arms. But he sat down, tucked his hands behind his head, and looked away trying to act indifferent to the whole situation. The blonde started to mumble a few things that weren't so nice about Iruka.

Iruka coughed and tried to finish his report. "… and Uchiha Sasuke. Your Jōnin instructor shall be Hatake Kakashi."

"NANI?!" All of the girls in the classroom screamed. They couldn't believe it. The shy girl, _Hyuuga Hinata_, was going to be partners with the 2 hottest guys in the classroom (yes Naruto is now considered the 2nd hottest guy in class); _Uzumaki Naruto_ and _Uchiha Sasuke_. And the thing was, Hinata didn't even like _Uchiha Sasuke_. She would always ignore the brooding boy whenever she passed him. It was like Hinata didn't even know that the cutest guy in the Academy even existed. Naruto's fangirls were growling and Sasuke's were seething with anger. They all directed their killer intent on Hinata at the exact same time, and said Hyuuga heiress nearly hopped out of her seat from all of the waves of killer intent that was crashing down on top of her.

Iruka felt his sweat drop. _Poor Hinata… I'd hate to be in her shoes right now…_ The Umino quickly started to resume calling the teams so the angry girls could have their attention directed back at him. "Team 8 will have Inuzuka Kiba, Haruno Sakura, and Aburame Shino in it. Your Jōnin instructor will be Yuhi Kurenai. Team 9 will be…"

* * *

Sasuke linked his fingers together and slumped forward in his desk. He stared straight ahead and ignored the squeals, sighs, and praises he was getting from his flock of girls. He really hated that they always stuck around him. And he hated it even more that he was getting stuck on a team with one. And the worst part of it was that he was stuck with that dunce Uzumaki Naruto.

The raven haired boy cocked his head a little to glare at his now blonde teammate. He saw that Naruto had finally acquired his on posse of raving fangirls.

Sasuke smirked. _At least it will be amusing to see the dobe suffer hell when they start to pester him over and over. _Sasuke then turned his head to his other teammate, Hyuuga Hinata. She sat at the table across from him, talking to the Inuzuka boy. He narrowed his pearly black eyes at her. He would have to endure another girl that was going to be on his team until he became a chūnin. How wonderful. But as the brooding boy paid close attention to his shy counterpart, he could see that she hadn't even given him a single sign of recognition that he was there.

Sasuke raised a brow. _How_ _strange…_ _It's_ _like she doesn't even_ _know I'm here…_ Sasuke shook his head and resumed brooding. _No… no it must be my_ _imagination… Once_ _we get on our team, she'll start harping down my neck for sure…_

"… Team 10 is Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji. And your Jōnin instructor shall be Sarutobi Asuma. Alright everyone, that's it for the teams. Please wait until your respected senseis' pick you up for your first day of being newly promoted ninjas of the Village Hidden in the Leaves!"

Everyone cheered and adults that were assumed to be Jōnins, instantly started to flock into the classroom.

* * *

Naruto groaned as he waited for his sensei to arrive. The three of them had been sitting in that classroom for 2 hours! For crying out, when was the guy supposed to show up?! Naruto suddenly felt a shift and turned his head to see Hinata scooting in next to him. He smiled.

"Hey Hinata-chan! What was up with you not sitting next to me earlier?" Naruto asked getting straight to the point. He really wanted to know what that Hitomi girl had said to her. And by the looks of it, it was bad considering Hinata was fidgeting in her seat.

"W-Well… I… u-umm… y-you see… umm…" Hinata stuttered out. She really didn't feel like explaining herself, but Sasuke had beaten her to the punch.

"She was _threatened_ not to sit by you. Apparently the Hyuuga girl was too spineless to defend herself against that other girl. Or are you too stupid to not see that, dobe?" Sasuke sneered.

Naruto watched as Hinata flinch at Sasuke's words. Her hands were clenched into tiny balls and she was trying to stop herself from shaking, but to no avail. He didn't know why, but he suddenly felt oddly protective of Hinata. So he did what he that was natural; he lashed out.

He suddenly stood up and directed his hated filled blue eyes at the Uchiha. "Hey! Don't talk about Hinata-chan like that you jerk!"

"Oh? And what are you going to do about it? You're just the class clown and a total failure. I bet if you had a match with Choji, you'd lose." Sasuke said tauntingly to the blonde.

Naruto felt his ears burn in embarrassment and in anger. No way was Sasuke going to make him look bad in front of his best friend. He growled at the prodigy and Sasuke in turn narrowed his eyes at Naruto. Before either of them could go at each other's throats, they were stopped from doing so.

"S-Stop it! Stop it now!" Hinata yelled at the two. They both looked at her in surprise; Hinata started to shrink back in fear. She didn't know why she had a sudden outburst, but she really hated it when people fought, especially if she was around to see it.

Hinata squirmed under their gaze. "Y-You r-really shouldn't f-fight… It's… I-It's umm…"

"Hn." Sasuke huffed at her. "And why shouldn't we? We are shinobi now, and shinobi must fight to protect his village. It is the way of the ninja. And I haven't heard of a _kunochi_ that doesn't want to _fight_. Why are you one anyway? Are you in it for the recognition?"

Although Naruto didn't like Sasuke, he had to wonder why Hinata wanted to be a ninja. For as long as the blonde has known the bluenette, she never did like to fight. She was peaceable and kind, and that's why Naruto liked her soo much. But now that they were Genin, the Uzumaki knew that Hinata had to get rid of her nice personality in order to be strong.

But Hinata had thought differently. The way the Uchiha was talking to her, he was pushing all the right buttons. She suddenly rounded on the proud boy with her eyes slightly narrowed. This made both Naruto _and_ Sasuke flinch.

"Not in any way that you may put it Uchiha-san, but I am striving to be a great kunochi in order to… prove to someone that I can be strong enough to please him…" Hinata's voice faltered at the last sentence. Naruto looked at her with confusion while Sasuke stared at her in shock.

_It seems she shares something in common with me…_ Sasuke thought, but then he harshly put that aside as quickly as it formed. _No… she must be faking it…_ The dark haired boy couldn't necessarily believe many people. Considering his past, Sasuke has always had a barrier between himself and others. And since he has been used to seeing girls trying to get to know him better, they have tried to sympathize what he's been through, but to no avail. So when Hinata had confessed to them, he was very skeptical of her answer… and herself…

Hinata suddenly blinked when she realized that she was being watched by her two teammates. She blushed in embarrassment and looked down at her hands as they started to wring themselves. "…a-and that f-fighting is pointless u-unless you have a-a g-good reason too… Uchiha-san…"

"Hn." Sasuke dismissed her sentence with a grunt and ignored the duo again.

Naruto smiled at Hinata, proud that she had stood up against that jerk Sasuke. Not only that, but he was happy that she had managed to shut the teme up.

_If I had done it, I would have said things that were 10 times worse!_ Naruto thought with his ego flaring up exponentially.

"Nice going Hinata! It's time that teme learned his place, 'ttebayo!" Naruto cheered to his best friend. Hinata giggled and her cheeks turned pink while Sasuke glared at Naruto.

The door suddenly slid open and a man with white, gravity defying hair, fair skin, that had one dark colored right eye while his other was covered by his Forehead Protector, a mask that obscured the lower half of his face, a green standard Konoha ninja vest that covered a black long-sleeved shirt that had red swirls on each of his shoulders, navy blue fingerless gloves and blue pants that had bandages that were strapped on the midsection of his right thigh, a blue pouch that held his weapons that was also strapped to his right thigh, the rest of legs that were still visible were also covered in bandages, and he wore the standard blue unisex ninja sandals. And it seemed that he was reading a peculiar orange book.

_This guy must be Hatake Kakashi or something… Is he our new sensei?! _Naruto thought giddily. He began bouncing in his seat with anticipation.

Kakashi looked at his new batch. He had a hyperactive boy, a shy Hyuuga girl that seemed to have some sort of affiliation with the blonde, and an Uchiha that broods a lot like an emo. All in all, he had an interesting batch this year.

_I wonder how this will play out… _the Jōnin thought with interest. Kakashi closed his book with slap and stared at his new students lazily.

"My first impression of you is… I don't like you." The three deadpanned at the man's remark and the white-haired man honestly didn't care. "Alright then, get on the roof in 5 minutes. See ya." And with that, he suddenly disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

* * *

"W-Well he seems… umm… very s-straightforward…" Hinata commented after a few moments of silence. She didn't quite get her new sensei, and he was a mysterious one at that; but somehow, deep down, she felt him to be very reliable.

They all went up to the roof as they were instructed and sat on the steps of the building. Hinata was always fascinated by this place. And as she looked around with her tiny hands clenched into tight fists against her chest, she couldn't help but admire the huge arches that loomed over her head; the trees that not only grew on the ground below, but had managed a way to uproot on Konohagakure's buildings as well. It was simply awe-inspiring.

Someone coughed next to her and she instantly turned to see Naruto smirking at her. She blushed in embarrassment and threw her hood over her head, trying to hide away from the shame.

Naruto just laughed. "Ha ha! Sorry about that, you just look so weird when you're distracted! And you look like a turtle with your hood on, it's hilarious!"

Hinata's face heated up even more. _N-Naruto-kun was w-watching me?! H-How embarrassing…!_ She pulled her hood even farther down to try hide her face even more. Naruto laughed harder.

"D-D-Don't laugh at m-me N-Naruto-kun! P-Please stop it! N-Naruto-kun!" Hinata screamed at the blonde while bombarding him with soft blows provided by her tiny, pale fists.

* * *

Naruto's laughs resided to soft snickers as he took in Hinata's blows openly. They didn't really hurt, but he wanted her to have her way. "Alright, alright I'll stop. Heh heh, but it's really funny though…"

"Naruto-kun!"

"Okay, stopping now." Naruto smiled at her. Then he suddenly pricked up. "Oh yeah, that's right! I forgot to tell you about what happened to me this morning!"

Hinata tilted her head in confusion. "Th-This morning? What happened, Naruto-kun?"

Naruto turned towards her a little more with his legs cross-legged on the stairs. "Okay, so I was at home reading this book right…"

"Hmph." Sasuke huffed with indifference and arrogance practically oozing off of him. "The idiot actually reads? That's a shocker."

Naruto felt a vein pop on his head as he suddenly jumped up and pointed an accusing finger at his insulter as his ponytail stuck up like a cat's fur when it was angry. "TEME! NOONE ASKED YOU TO BUTT IN BAKA!"

"G-Guys…" Hinata whispered, trying to cool the two rivals down. Luckily for her, they heard her and they looked away from each other with hate and disdain showing on their faces.

Hinata started to sweat bullets as she started to wave her arms frantically to get Naruto's attention refocused back on her. "S-So Naruto-kun, about y-your story…?"

"Oh yeah!" Naruto bopped his fist into his hand. "So I was reading this book right, and I it was about this guy named Uchiha Madara and it says that he was really bad and—"

"Wait," Sasuke said interrupting the blonde once again, "did you just say Uchiha…?"

Naruto growled. "Yes, I did! Now will you let me finish my damn story?!"

Of course, the raven haired boy ignored the blonde. "What do you know about him?" If it was anything about his family that was so interesting it even caught Naruto's attention, then Sasuke knew that it must've been important.

Naruto scratched his sun-kissed hair. He didn't really have a chance to finish his research, but he did manage to pick up some very peculiar yet interesting facts about the man. "Well, it says that Madara was the Uchiha's head and often fought with the First Hokage… but he would lose a lot, but not without leaving a few marks and chakra depletion on the Shodaime though…"

Sasuke's eye widened. He could believe that a member from his clan had actually gone head to head with a Hokage and managed to leave his marks on the leader to. He gave a tiny smile. If a member from his clan be able to have the power of holding his own against a Kage, then Sasuke knew he could obtain the same thing as well.

"And from the—" Naruto froze. He remembered that he couldn't tell them about the Kyuubi; especially Hinata. If he revealed to them that he had a demon fox spirit residing in his stomach, they would 1. Think he was crazy, or 2. Hate him and run away with fear. "… and from a source of mine told me that this Madara guy was bad news."

Sasuke narrowed his eyes slightly and Hinata looked at Naruto with confusion written of her features. "R-Really? From what s-source Naruto-k-kun?"

He hesitated. How was he going to get out of this one?! Luckily for our hero, Kakashi-sensei arrived on the scene right on time.

"Yo." He greeted waving a hand lazily at his students. Naruto sighed in relief. It was the one time that he was actually _glad_ to see a teacher.

He suddenly blinked. Naruto noticed that Kakashi-sensei still had that weird looking orange book in his hand. As the blonde peered closer he saw the title and was revolted.

_Icha Icha Paradise?! This guy reads those nasty books?! What a pervert!_ Naruto thought and one of his eyes twitched comically. Before Naruto could reveal that their sensei was in fact a pervert, the white-haired man started to already talk.

"Okay then," he began casually, "why don't you introduce yourselves, one at a time."

"I-Introduce ours-selves…?" Hinata questioned, fidgeting slightly under the Jōnin's gaze. "W-What are we supposed to s-say?"

Kakashi shrugged. "Things you like, things you hate, dreams for the future, hobbies. Things like that." He then folded his arms.

Naruto looked at the man skeptically before he brightened up with an idea. "Hey per— I mean Kakashi-sensei, why don't you tell us about yourself first, I mean before we talk, tell us about you so we can see how it's supposed to work."

Kakashi blinked and then pointed to himself. "Me? I'm Hatake Kakashi. Things I like and things I hate… mmm, I don't feeling like telling you that."

Both Naruto and Hinata looked at him in confusion. But nevertheless, the one-eyed man continued.

"My dreams for the future… Never really thought about it. As for my hobbies," Kakashi suddenly looked up at the sky, "I have lots of hobbies."

Naruto looked at the man incredulously. He then turned to the bluenette and began to whisper. "Well that was completely useless, all he really told us was his name!" Hinata didn't want to critic their sensei, but she had to agree with Naruto.

"Okay, your turn. You on the right, you first." Kakashi said lazily as he stared at Naruto.

Naruto grinned and started to reposition his headband a few times. "Dattebayo! I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I like instant ramen in a cup, and I really like the ramen Iruka-sensei got me at the Ichiraku noodle shop. And I like hanging out with my best friend, Hinata-chan!" Naruto suddenly looked at Hinata and gave her his lopsided grin. She in turn, gave him one of her small, gentle smiles, and her cheeks had a cute hue of pink stained on her cheeks.

_Interesting…_ Kakashi deduced as he watched the whole scene unfold in front of him.

Naruto continued. "But I hate the 3 minutes you have to wait after you'd have to pour the water in the ramen cup. My hobby is eating different kinds of ramen and comparing them. And my future dream is…!" Naruto suddenly sported on a determined smile and held up his fists like he was getting ready for a fight. "… To be the greatest Hokage! Then the whole village will stop disrespecting me and start treating me like I'm somebody! Somebody important!"

Kakashi's one eye widened, before returning back to its lazy stare. _Well… He's grown up in a very interesting way…_ "Alright, next." Kakashi announced, looking at Hinata.

* * *

Hinata jumped a little, quickly pulled her hood off of her head, and started to poke two fingers together shyly as she spoke. "Well I… umm… H-Hello, m-my name is Hyuuga Hinata. I-I l-like training and my hobby is p-pressing flowers in my scrapbook. I also like sp-spending time with my best f-friend, N-Naruto-kun…" She blushed a little and glanced at the blonde while he smiled at her, hanging on every word. "I also l-like eating cinnamon rolls!" She said that with such devotion, it shocked all the three males. Her eyes were twinkling and it seemed that she was drooling a little from the corner of her mouth.

Kakashi felt his sweat drop. _Well… It seems she has a major sweet tooth with deserts… Not what I had expected from someone of her caliber…_

Hinata snapped out of it and her whole face heated up as she realized that she was acting in an ill-mannered way. Oh what would her father say when she was going to report to him today?! She quickly looked down and started to play with the ends of her beige jacket.

"I-I-I hate… I-I hate it when people calls a person weak!" This time she had shouted; once again, making the three males look at her in shock. Hinata slowly looked at Sasuke, her pale lavender-tinged eyes narrowing slightly at him. As quickly and unexpected as it came, it vanished and she paid her attention back to her sensei.

Sasuke's black onyx eyes looked at Hinata questioningly. She had just _glared_ at him. The shy Hyuuga girl had just _glared_ at him. Sasuke assumed it was a warning from her to not tread on her grounds; unless he wanted to get burned. Sasuke found himself observing the bluenette more than any other girl he had ever seen.

She was… interesting…

"My dream is," Hinata continued, "to be kind like my mother, yet strong like my father, and to lead my clan as a strong enough leader as I can possibly be." Not once, had Hinata stuttered in that sentence. She was going to prove to her father, Naruto-kun, and all of the elders in her clan that she was _strong_ enough for their approval. That she _would_ overcome what they thought was impossible for her. That when they said she couldn't, that she _could_.

Hinata clenched her fists, her shy eyes having a determined glint in them, which has never happened before in her young life. The Hyuuga heiress was going to make this part of her life be right.

_I-I'll try and do my best even if I might not be good like the others, but I can still try!_ Hinata thought, clenching her fists tighter and looking at Kakashi dead on, without a single shadow of bashfulness hindering her.

The white-haired cyclops put his head into his hand as he stared at Hinata with interest. _Hmm… Another interesting one… Girls her age are more interested in boys than in ninja training… But it seems that Hinata, is the exact opposite of that… How ironic…_ Kakashi looked at Sasuke. "Last one."

Sasuke linked his fingers together and stared off into a space that no one else could follow with their eyes. "My name is Uchiha Sasuke. I hate a lot of things. And I don't particularly like anything." The brooding boy suddenly sported on a much more intense look than ever before. He seemed to roll off a thick cloud of killer intent into the air. "What I have, is not a dream. Because I will make it a reality. I'm going to restore my clan, and destroy a certain someone…"

* * *

Everyone stared at the Uchiha in silence. Naruto looked at Sasuke with skeptical blue eyes as he blanched.

_Gee I, I hope he doesn't mean me… _Naruto thought as he started to think maybe he should move away a little bit more. Luckily for him, Hinata was feeling the same way.

_Just as I thought… _Kakashi folded his arms and looked at the boy with a narrowed eye. He couldn't believe that he had to deal with another one of these cases. At least he didn't have to deal with a sadist like Anko on his team.

"Alright," Kakashi said breaking everyone's train of thought, "you're each unique and you have your own ideas. We'll have our first mission tomorrow."

Naruto instantly brightened and gave a salute to the Jōnin. "What kind of mission are we going to have?"

Kakashi sighed. "It's a task that the four of us will do together."

Naruto eagerly leaned forward and placed his two hands on the cemented floor. "What what what what?!" He beamed.

Kakashi's eyes narrowed as he thought about it, then it resumed to its original position. He had it. "A survival exercise."

"Huh? Survival exercise?" Naruto repeated as he looked at Kakashi with confused closed eyes.

"N-No offense, Kakashi-sensei, but I thought w-we were going to have an m-mission. N-Not more practice." Hinata said softly.

"Yeah, and we've completed this at the Academy," Sasuke agreed, his eyes analyzing the white-haired man, "that's how we have made it to Genin."

"This is not like your previous training." Kakashi explained.

"So uh, so uh… What kind of training is it then?" Naruto asked while raising a hand in the air.

Kakashi looked off in a different direction as he started to chuckle a bit sinisterly. Sasuke stared at his teacher with narrowed and weary pearly eyes while Hinata started to cower a little in her place and gripped the edge of her jacket hard until the whites of her knuckles was seen.

"Hey, hold on! That's a normal question, what's so funny?" Naruto asked as he looked at Kakashi-sensei quizzically.

Kakashi chuckled a bit more before speaking. "Hm hm well, if I tell you the answer, you're not going to like it." He said while waving a hand and chuckling a little more.

* * *

"Ha?" Naruto was confused. How was he going to not like the answer. They were going to have a mission tomorrow! And it was survival training or whatever! It sounded awesome!

Kakashi suddenly held a hand to his face and leered at them. His killer intent was rolling off of him onto them like crashing waves. "Of the 27 graduates who came here, only 9 will likely be accepted as Genin. The other 18 will be weeded out and sent back to the Academy. In other words, this is a make-it or break-it pass or fail test. And the chance that you'll fail is at least 66%."

Sasuke glared, Hinata blanched, and Naruto had a comically shocked face on with his mouth agape.

"See?" Kakashi said while leaning forward. "Didn't I tell you that you wouldn't like it?"

Naruto didn't like it, he downright hated the damn test. How could he be sent back to the Ninja Academy when he just got out of that accursed place?! He worked too hard to fail now! No way was he going to be sent back! They'd sooner have to pry him from the Hokage monument before he went back.

"That's crazy!" He yelled angrily. "We've worked hard to get here, dattebayo! What was that graduation test for anyway?!"

An eagle went by over their heads as Kakashi answered the boy's question. "Oh that? That was just to select candidates who might become Genin… or not."

"WHAAAT?!" Naruto screamed.

Kakashi folded his arms once again. "That's how it is. I decide whether you pass or fail. Be at the designated training spot at 5 AM. And bring your ninja gear."

Naruto started to shake with anger at the news. _Well I'm not gonna be weeded out! People are going to look up to me someday…! I've got to pass this test! Dattebayo, dattebayo!_

Hinata had started to shake at the news; but not with anger, with fear. _I-I have to pass this test…! I'll disappoint father again and my clan will look down on me at another failure…_ Hinata suddenly glanced at Naruto who was fuming with anger. _Not only that, I-I'll be separated from Naruto-kun… I will have to do my best…!_

Sasuke clenched his hands together with controlled but frustrated anger. He had to pass this test as well. He was an Uchiha, and Uchiha's never failed. He was not going to tolerate being held back the Academy, looking like some fool who couldn't do anything right; no he was going to pass this test, even if he had to fight for it. That meant he had to shape up his abilities and his teammates in order to do so.

Kakashi turned with his back to them. One of his hands waved at them dismissively. "That's it. You're dismissed. Oh." He suddenly turned around. "Tomorrow, you might want to skip breakfast or else…" His one eye hardened. "… you'll puke."

All three of them stared at the Jōnin in shock.

* * *

It was early morning and the sun hasn't even made its grand entrance yet. There were a few birds chirping, but all of Konoha was asleep… That is, expect for three little Genin. Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke were all walking down different paths where all three of them saw each other.

"Good m-morning…" Hinata said softly. She was tired, but she was used to getting up way early in the morning for training. When you lived in a prestigious clan that made you train early at dawn, you would get used to waking up before the village did. Although, Hinata would usually get up around 6:30 AM or so, so this was a little new to her.

Naruto on the other hand, still had his eyes closed and was staggering towards her with an outstretched hand. "Morning…" He yawned tiredly. He was wearing his orange jumpsuit today but his jacket was open revealing his fishnet shirt.

Hinata smiled tiredly at him. _He must not be used to getting up so early in the morning…_ She turned to look at Sasuke walking confidently towards them. He was fully awake with no complaints. Hinata blinked in surprise. He must've trained earlier than she did.

They all met in the center where all three pathways met. The dark blue and purple sky started to turn brighter as the sun had finally awoken and was rising in the sky. The trio had made a triangle formation with Hinata standing and looking around at the scenery at one point, Sasuke, also standing with his arms folded, glaring at something faraway at another, and Naruto, sitting on the ground with his knees pulled up against his chest as he yawned at the final point.

Minutes passed as the sun was sitting beautifully over two mountains that were miles away. This time, Hinata was sitting down with Naruto, drawing in the dirt as he sat next to her and did the same. Sasuke still stood, still glaring.

A few more minutes passed with the sun high in the sky, kilometers away from the mountains it had previously sat on. Kakashi appeared out of nowhere and addressed the Genin.

"Morning everyone. Ready for your first day?" He asked.

"HEY YOU'RE LATE!" Naruto screamed as he pointed an accusing finger at him.

He waved at them. "Well a black cat had crossed my path so I had to take the long way." He said with his one eye smiling as he pointed in the direction he had just came from.

Naruto started to growl as Sasuke stared at Kakashi with annoyance. "Well," Kakashi cleared his throat, "let's get started."

Hinata, Naruto, and Sasuke all stared as the watched as Kakashi set down a timing clock on a tree stump.

"It's set for noon…" He suddenly pushed down on the clock's starting mechanism. Once again, they all stared at the cyclops. Kakashi held up two bells as they jingled. "Your assignment is very simple. You just have to take these bells from me. That's all there is to it." He jingled the bells again. "If you can't get 'em by noon, you go without lunch."

"Wah?!" Naruto spluttered.

Kakashi continued and suddenly pointed to the three posts that were next by them. "You'll be tied to those posts and you'll watch as I'll eat my lunch in front of you."

Their stomachs grumbled as they stared at their apparent doom. _So that's why… _Sasuke thought as he stared at the posts in mild distress. Naruto was just wailing with distress as he stared at his doom of not eating.

Hinata poked her fingers together and also looked at the posts with regret. _H-He told us not to eat breakfast to make it harder on us…_ She sighed, but then she pricked up when she noticed something amiss. "W-Wait a minute, th-there are 3 of us. H-How come there are o-only t-two bells?"

Kakashi's eye crinkled with amusement. "Hmph. Well that way, at least one of you will end up tied to a post and ultimately disqualified for failing to complete the mission." He jingled the bells again tauntingly in front of their faces. "That one goes back to the Academy."

All three stared at the bells with focused eyes. "Then again," Kakashi continued, "all 3 of you could flunk out too." The white-haired cyclopean held up the bells and looked at his Genin seriously. "You can use any weapons, including shuriken. If you're not prepared to kill me, you won't be able to take the bells." Kakashi then flung the bells up and grabbed them in his hand in a viper tight grip.

Hinata suddenly stepped forward with a hand pressed against her chest. "B-But th-those weapons are too dangerous, s-sensei!" She protested.

Naruto started to laugh as he put his hands behind his head. "Especially since you move way too slow for a Jōnin!" He beamed, feeling cocky.

Kakashi turned towards Naruto. "Class clowns are usually the weakest links. You can safely ignore them. Lowest scores. Losers."

Naruto deadpanned and suddenly glared at his teacher.

Kakashi turned back to look fully at the three. "When I say start, you can begin."

Naruto growled as he started to seethe with anger. No way was this guy going to humiliate him like that. He was going to be Hokage someday! The ponytailed blonde suddenly reached into his weapons pouch, brought out a kunai, twirled it expertly on his middle finger, and started to charge at the Jōnin with full speed.

Kakashi had gotten himself ready to easily counter Naruto's attack, but what he didn't expect was for what the unpredictable ninja to do next. The Uzumaki had suddenly increased his speed and ran in a zigzag formation, temporarily confusing the Hatake. Naruto then grappled his kunai firmly, quickly slipping into Kakashi's guard, and started to drive the kunai into the man's intestines.

But since Kakashi was an experienced shinobi, he knew how to counter it. Kakashi quickly grabbed Naruto's arm with viper like reflexes, before the young boy could impale him. The cyclopean twisted the boy's arm around his back, making him spin to face his team, and he secured the other arm behind his back as well.

"Don't be in such a hurry." Kakashi warned Naruto. "I didn't say start yet." Even though Kakashi had predictably bested the boy, he couldn't say that it was necessarily easily. When Naruto had managed to increase his speed, the white-haired man was surprised, and that gave him an opening for Naruto to take.

_He had used chakra to give him a boost to temporarily distract me… He's fast… If I hadn't been a Jōnin, Naruto would have certainly killed me… It seems that he _does_ get the concept… _Kakashi analyzed. He wondered what else the boy could do.

Hinata stared at Naruto with awe and admiration. _H-He was soo fast…! I-It almost seemed like he really had gotten K-Kakashi-sensei…!_

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. _How did Naruto manage to throw off a Jōnin?! I wasn't expecting this… The dobe has gotten stronger, so I've got to pick up my training a little more…_

Kakashi let go of Naruto, and the blonde instantly jumped back to where his team was standing on guard. He watched as the Genin looked at him wearily.

_He's very unpredictable indeed…_ His eye still gazed as the boy as he started to speak. "But, you came at me with the full intention of killing me so…"

Hinata narrowed her eyes a little as she prepared for the man's next words. "Heh heh, how can I say this? I'm actually starting to like you guys." Kakashi then hardened his eye. "Get ready! And…" The trio was put on guard as they waited for their sensei's signal.

"Start!" They all jumped out of sight to cover more ground, and to formulate some tactics that might get them to obtain the bells.

* * *

It was sunny in Konohagakure. The Hokage Tower still stood greatly on the soil and it was bustling with ninja coming in and out of it. In one particular room though, it was quiet. Umino Iruka and the Sandaime Hokage were in that room sitting at a long table, drinking tea. After a long silence, the Third spoke.

"Iruka." The old man said gruffly. "What did you wish to see me about? I don't think you came here merely to drink tea with me and chat, did you?"

"Naruto's been assigned to Squad 7." Iruka stated getting to the point. He linked his fingers together as he leaned on his elbows that were placed on the table. "The Jōnin in charge of that group, just how tough of a trainer is he?"

"Kakashi, you mean…?" The Sandaime was silent for a moment before he continued. "You are concerned about him?"

Iruka put his fists on the table as he nodded. "I am. I heard a rumor about his training methods."

The Hokage breathed in deeply. "Hmm." He suddenly reached into his garb and pulled out a green book and placed it on the table.

Iruka looked at it deeply before looking at the village's respected leader. "What's this?"

The Hokage looked at the Chūnin with an unwavering gaze. His voice sounded older and grave at the same time. "All of the trainees that have ever been assigned to him. Those who've passed and those who've failed."

Iruka gasped. "May I?" The teacher took the book and began to review its contents. His brows suddenly furrowed. "Hmm?" He looked even deeper and was shocked at what he had found. "This… this is…!"

* * *

Back at the training field, Team 7 was still hiding from their sensei, trying to think of ways to overpower him.

"Ninja, must know how to conceal his movements," Kakashi explained as he raised his voice so his students could hear him, "and hide effectively."

Sasuke was hiding in the trees, hidden by their canopies and vines. Hinata was hidden in the low bushes of the grounds, waiting for an opening. Naruto was thinking about revealing himself purposely so he could have a rematch with Kakashi, but he was stopped by a voice.

_**Hold it there kit. Don't you know anything about being a pesky shinobi?**_ A harsh voice growled as Naruto froze. He remembered that voice but he couldn't believe he was still talking to him.

Naruto quickly hid back in his hiding spot which was the lower trees. _Nine-Tails?! Is that you?!_

_**Who else is trapped inside your stomach and can speak to you telepathically, idiot?!**_ The Kyuubi growled. _**Are you still **_**this**_** stupid?**_

Naruto was about to retort when he realized the situation he was in. _I don't have time to argue with you! I have a really important mission to complete! And I don't need you nagging me for everything I do wrong!_

_**Which is everything.**_ The fox retorted. Naruto facepalmed himself. He really didn't have time for this! If he wanted the bell and to pass, he would have to get one before Sasuke-teme did!

_Look, you can go crawl back into your little cage and gripe about every painstaking minute of your life that you have to spend by living inside of me._ Naruto growled. _But right now, I need to focus and get one of those bells!_

_**Hmph. As much as I would absolutely **_**love**_** to do that, I have a better proposition.**_ The Nine-Tailed fox said to the blonde.

_Which is?_ Naruto asked.

_**Helping you out.**_ Naruto blinked in surprise. Helping him out? Why would a 1,000 year old grumpy fox demon want to help out a kid like him? There had to be a trick or something.

_What's the catch…?_ Naruto said skeptically. The Kyuubi suddenly laughed, his merriment practically vibrating his stomach.

_**Muh ha ha! So the boy **_**is**_** smart! **_He chuckled._** Alright, there is one. The catch is, I'll lend you my power as long as you agree to free me when you become Hokage.**_ It responded, stifling little laughs here and there.

Naruto's eyes widened. _L-Let you out?! But you'll go destroying the village again! No deal!_

The Kyuubi sighed exasperatedly. _**Look. I had already told you that I bear no grudge against you or your puny village! So why would I attack your village in anyway?! I just want to be free, roaming the world as I did before you humans showed up and captured me for all those years!**_

Naruto was still skeptical about the beast running loose. I mean, the first time he met the guy he was rolling off killer intent like no tomorrow. So you bet the blonde boy couldn't believe the demon. _I, I don't know…_

The Kyuubi sighed and Naruto found himself at the fox's cage. The demon suddenly growled and a large scroll suddenly appeared and loomed over the blonde boy. It unraveled and a seal with inscriptions were written on it.

_**This is a scroll that contains the agreement that I will not set foot on your puny village for as long as I shall live. **_The Kyuubi explained. _**With your blood, you shall write your name stating that we have met an agreement and will both uphold to our promises. You promise me freedom; I promise your land will continue to live in prosperity. Happy now?**_ He grumbled.

Naruto nodded feeling immensely reassured. As long as he had his name encrypted in blood on this scroll, the Nine-Tails wouldn't harm his village! He liked the sound of that. But before the longhaired blonde could bite his thumb, the Kyuubi spoke up.

_**Wait kit. I haven't explained the… side effects yet…**_

_Side effects?_ Where exactly was this going?

The Nine-Tails suddenly appeared in the dark cave. He was huge, gigantic, and enormous. Naruto had almost fallen back from trying to look at the beast's face. The fox was dark orange with bloodshot, red eyes. His two long ears sat acutely on top of his head, and his snout was long and limber. His claws were sharp and his powerful nine tails swooshed around haphazardly in his cage.

Naruto gulped and the beast smiled. _**What? Fox got your tongue kit?**_ He laughed. _**Don't worry, I won't bite… If I feel like it, that is… **_The blonde preteen blanched at the demon's words. He only saw one red eyeball and he was scared; but now that he's seen the full package, he was _terrified_.

_**But anyway,**_ he said, getting straight to the point, _**the side effects of signing that contract is that my chakra will slowly seep into yours, merging the two of us together. You will have immense power, and your stamina shall increase tenfold. And your senses will be slightly heighted because of my… lineage… It sounds pretty legit, yes?**_

Naruto thought about, rubbing his chin in the process. _Having more power and more stamina… My senses will also be heightened… I can be able to convert that chakra usefully for my training… But it'll be more of a hassle to get it under control again…_ Naruto started to ponder the situation a little more before he had finally came up with a conclusion. Sure it was a pain, but it'll help him achieve his dream of becoming Hokage right?

_Alright Kyuubi, you've got yourself a deal._ Naruto said as he walked up to the scroll and looked for where his name should go.

_**There is a small box where your name should be written and the blood marks of your 5 fingers should be printed. **_The Nine-Tailed fox explained. Naruto saw it and bit his thumb. Blood gushed out and he quickly wrote his name as instructed and used the blood of his thumb to smear it on the rest of his fingers and pressed hard against the scroll. Once he was finished, he backed away and the scroll sank into the ground.

The beast nodded to Naruto. _**The seal has been set. I expect you to keep up your end of the deal, kit.**_

_As I to you too, Kyuubi._ Naruto countered while smiling.

The Kyuubi smiled at him. This boy was almost as interesting as his last Jinchuriki host. And she was a little spitfire she was. _**Kurama.**_ He suddenly said.

Naruto looked at him quizzically. _Kurah-wha?_

The demon sighed. Yep, this boy was something else. _**Kurama. That is my name. Not Kyuubi. Get it right idiot.**_

Naruto suddenly bopped his fist into his hand. _Oh, Kurama…! Wait… Isn't that like an old lady's name?_

The beast suddenly had a vein bursting on his forehead. If this idiot didn't get out of his realm soon, he was going to break his spine in half! _**HOW DARE YOU! MY NAME DOES NOT SOUND LIKE SOME OLD WINDBAG'S!**_

Naruto suddenly jumped and started to wave his arms around frantically. _**N-No wait! I-I mean it sounds more like an old man's name! Yeah!**_

_**C'MERE YOU LITTLE TWIT SO I CAN RIP YOU TO PIECES!**_ Kurama roared as he started to thrash around in his cage, make the murky water send giant waves at Naruto.

The blonde spluttered for air as he tried to stay on the surface of the tidal waves that were constantly crashing down on his head. How was he going to get out of this mess?! He squinted his eyes shut as another wave hurled on top of him. Once he had opened them, he was back in the forest, still looking at Kakashi.

"Who… What…?" Naruto whispered in confusion. How'd he end up here? He shook his head. He didn't know but he was grateful that he had finally gotten out of a mess with an angry demon that was raging inside of his belly. Naruto looked around until he spotted Hinata a few kilometers away.

_If Kurama said not to attack head on, then why don't we attack in a group…?_ Naruto thought smartly. He grinned and began to dash over to his friend. Never in a million, trillion years had Naruto ever thought of this one thing. An idea. Naruto had an idea and it was a brilliant one…

* * *

_Next Time on The Evolution of Love: Naruto's Grand Idea?!_

* * *

**YO YO YO! Oh man, I finally finished my story before May was out like I promised! Hope you dudes have enjoyed this! And for you guys that wanted Hinata and Naruto to be on other teams, GOMEN! I'm really sorry but putting Hinata on Team 7 really... Spoke out to me... (And from one of my sources had a really convincing theory on **_why_** Hinata should be on Team 7... I'M SOO GULLIBLE FOR HER!) **

**AND OH MAN NARUTO ACTUALLY HAS AN IDEA?! JAY JAY FLIP WHAT THE ZIP?! Well then, if you have sneezed through this whole awesome thing then GOD BLESS YOUR FACE! Anywayzzzzzz, see ya dudes and dudettes on the flip side (and next story!)!**


	6. Naruto's Grand Idea!

**The Evolution of Love**

Naruto's Grand Idea?!

...

_**Nine-Tails'/Kyuubi's thoughts inside of Naruto/Calling a jutsu/Bold words**_

_Thinking (for anyone)/ Indention._

**Nine-Tails/Kyuubi speaking/Jutsu/Bold words.**

_Thinking in a flashback/Fantasy dreams_

...

Hinata was peering at their sensei with pale, calculating eyes. Not once had she seen her teacher move, but to just flip the pages of his orange book. But Hinata was no fool. She could plainly see that he was simply awaiting for one of them to attack to him so he could critic their work and knowledge they have obtained over the years at the Ninja Academy.

_I thought N-Naruto-kun would be the first one to attack him…_ She thought as she started to slowly sit up and peer at Kakashi a little more. _I-I guess he was thinking of doing something else…?_

She suddenly heard a shuffle which made her body tense up. Her guard instantly raised as she was automatically put on alert. Could it be Kakashi-sensei that was behind her? She shook her head. No, that couldn't be it… But the shy Hyuuga has heard of a clone jutsu that was Jōnin level. Could it be that…? If it was or not, Hinata had the advantage of seeing her assaulter.

She quickly flipped through some seals to activate her doujutsu. _**"Byakugan!"**_ She whispered as veins immediately sprang up around her eyes. Though Hinata was from the main branch, she had trouble activating her clan's Kekkei Genkai without the seals. This was why she was considered weak and was a failure because she didn't train hard enough to be able to activate her clan's doujutsu without seals like her little sister, Hanabi. Hanabi was considered a prodigy amongst the elders and their father. Even though Hinata was the next heir to being the Hyuuga's clanhead, they had told her that if she didn't shape up and be considered "strong" enough to act like a leader of their clan, that she would be reduced to being a branded branch member while her sister took the throne to the clan. Her father had told her that she had until she was 16 years old to prove him and the elders wrong.

Hinata shook her head violently to get rid of those negative thoughts. _I-I don't have time to think about that now… I have to pass this test in order to be considered a Genin!_ She focused and her vision was suddenly heightened tenfold. She could see almost everything in a 375 yard radius. Still not enough for her father but it was impressive to say the least. She saw Sasuke in the trees, about to make his move, she saw their sensei totally unaware, at least to her that is, and she saw Naruto squatting behind her at a nearby branch while he was looking at her.

… Wait… What…?

"N-Naruto-kun," Hinata spoke softly to him, "wh-what are you doing over h-here?"

Naruto jumped down to the ground and squatted next by her. He was amazed by the seals she had done, and was even more astonished when veins had popped up around her eyes and she even saw him without turning around! It was weird but cool at the same time.

"Hey Hinata, what's up with your eyes?" He asked, ignoring her question.

"My… eyes…?" She suddenly realized that he meant her doujutsu. "O-Oh this?" She said pointing to her eyes. "Th-This is my Kekkei Genkai, a blood encrypted jutsu that is only bred in a clan and cannot be copied by anyone or anything."

Naruto's eyes sparkled with interest. "So what does it do? Tell me! Tell me! Tell me! Tell me!" He begged.

Hinata giggled but continued on with her lesson. "This is called the **Byakugan**. It is an ocular Kekkei Genkai; so that means that it is a doujutsu that has to do with the eyes." Naruto "oohed" and "awed" at the revelation. "The **Byakugan** can be able to enhance a person's vision tenfold and let them see into their enemy's chakra network."

"Wait," He stopped her, "you can actually SEE a person's chakra network?! That's pretty freakin' awesome Hinata!"

Hinata blushed harder and her cheeks both looked like tomatoes. "Th-Thank you Na-Naruto-kun…" She breathed in deeply and continued on with her description. "A-And since we, the H-Hyuuga, use this Kekkei Genkai, we have developed an attack sequence that can shut down an enemy's tenketsu points, or chakra points. We call this the **Gentle Fist.**"

Naruto tilted his head, making his long strands of hair flop handsomely around his face. Hinata's blush started to spread until her entire nose was covered in the red hue. "**Gentle**… **Fist**…? What kinda name is that?! It sounds like it couldn't even hurt a fly! Why don't you call it the… uhh… the Point-Closing Fist, ne?"

Hinata started to fidget with her clothing again but she had managed to keep her pale eyes locked with his cerulean ones. "N-Naruto-kun, the **G-Gentle Fist** is actually a very hard-hitting jutsu. Its name is only a deception technique to fool the enemy that the jutsu may _seem_ weak… I-It's actually very strong." She explained, defending her clan and its techniques. Even though she has a very… physical and emotional abusive childhood, she still loves her clan and will do everything she can so that she can change its traditions into more happier and peaceable ones in the near future.

Naruto still didn't look convinced. "If it's not so gentle then why don't you try it on me?" He grinned at while jabbing a thumb at his chest. "C'mon and hit me. I wanna see how strong your jutsu is!"

Even though Naruto looked excited, Hinata was mortified. Hit her crush?! No way would she do that! She didn't want to hurt him just because she had stated that the **Gentle Fist** was strong! Now the heiress had wished she had never explained it to Naruto.

"I-I-I can't d-do that N-Naruto-kun!" Hinata abashed. "I-I don't want to hurt you!"

Naruto smiled gently at her. He was flattered that she was still concerned about him and his health for long the time they have been best friends. No one has ever been more concerned about him than her… and well, maybe Iruka-sensei too, but it was still nice that she would fuss over him like a mom.

"Hey don't worry about me! I can handle it! I'm Uzumaki Naruto, the greatest ninja who ever lived and is gonna be Hokage someday! I'm sure that I can take a hit, I mean, we are gonna be on dangerous missions right?"

Hinata hesitated but she nodded.

"So we'll need to spar against each other to get stronger! And I need your help so if I ever have to fight with one of your family members, I can know what I'm dealing with!" (Naruto, you don't know how right you are man…) Naruto beamed at her while he flexed an arm to reassure her.

Hinata hesitated. She didn't like to cause her crush pain, but she could see legit logic in his words. Sparring was a great way to get stronger and you can be able to know your teammates fighting style and help them in the heat of a battle. And that if Naruto and herself were going to continue to be friends, there would be a slight possibility that the blonde boy would have to face off against some of her family members.

Hinata looked into his eyes for any doubt that may be lingering there in the sea of blue, but she had seen none. It was just determination and truth that were blazing in those eyes; those eyes that made her melt down to very her core.

She sighed as she nodded. "O-Okay Naruto-kun, i-if you really want to… I-I can do it…"

"Yatta!" He cheered as he pumped a hand. But he was silenced when Hinata had shushed him. Even though he was going to experience an attack he's never seen before, they were still in the middle of a test and they had to be quiet. "Right, sorry."

Hinata sighed and closed her eyes to refocus her **Byakugan** again. She snapped her eyes open and instantly saw Naruto's chakra network. She saw the standard blue running through him, but she also saw a seal on his stomach that had caught her eyes. It was peculiar looking and when she pumped more chakra into her eyes to get more detail; her vision was suddenly wafted in red. A demonic face suddenly morphed in Naruto's stomach but she could make out what it looked like. It was a fox.

Hinata's focus was suddenly broken, making the **Byakugan** shatter and her normal vision return. She started to breathe heavily as she keeled over the ground. She gripped the dirt hard as shaky breaths started to rattle her body.

She could only think of one question that was buzzing in her brain like angry bees. _Wh-What was that…?!_

* * *

"Hinata!" Naruto called to her worriedly. As soon as she had activated her Kekkei Genkai, she was suddenly hunching over the ground ripping at the dirt with her fingers. Naruto quickly started to sooth her by rubbing her back comfortingly.

_What the hell happened?! _Naruto screamed as he tried to say comforting words to his friend. It was working, but it seemed he couldn't stop her from shaking badly.

_**Kit… I think your vixen might have seen a little bit of my chakra…**_ Kurama told him, the demon's voice sounding grave.

_WHAT?!_ Naruto yelled at the fox. He wasn't disturbed by the fact that the fox had called Hinata his vixen or whatever; he was unsettled by the fact that Hinata had actually _seen_ a portion of Kurama's power.

Kurama sighed like he knew that this sort of thing might happened. Which the old fox did. _**Yes. Since the girl has an ocular Kekkei Genkai that can see into a person's chakra network, and since you are my Jinchuriki host, it was fairly easy for her to notice that a small bit of my demonic aura has secreted into your belly.**_

Naruto was worried. If Hinata had saw that tidbit of red chakra, then she could know that the Nine-Tails was living inside of him. _And then she wouldn't think of me as a friend anymore, and run away from me like everyone else… _Naruto looked crestfallen. If Hinata would run away from him too, he wouldn't know how he could go on.

Naruto shook his head. _No way am I gonna let that happen dammit! I'll just have to keep Kurama a secret until I can be able tell her about him… Yeah!_

Kurama chuckled in amusement. Naruto was sure an interesting one in his eyes. He wasn't like the others, and that's what made the demon find the lad interesting. _**Although… He does remind me of that spitfire of a redhead…**_

_Hmm? You say somethin' Kurama?_

_**No nothing… **_Kurama said. _**Nothing at all…**_

Naruto cut off the telepathic link to the demon fox and paid attention back to his best friend. Hinata had calmed down dramatically when he was temporarily distracted by his tenant. Her breathing returned to normal and her shaking was reduced into small twitches here and there. And it seemed that she was back to her normal creamy pale color instead of being sheet white like before.

"Hinata-chan… Are you alright?" Naruto asked her with his voice filled with concern as his rubs on her back were becoming long, smooth strokes.

"Y-Y-Yes… N-Naruto-kun…" She responded in a raspy voice.

Naruto mentally kicked himself. _Why'd you have to go and do that, baka?!_ He was angry that he didn't even think that she would see his seal and Kurama's demonic power. Even after that long explanation of the **Byakugan**, the Uzumaki still screwed it up when he told her to continue on.

_Because of you, Hinata-chan had gotten scared all because of your stupid brain! Baka! Baka! Baka! Baka!_ Naruto kept berating himself until Hinata had broken him of his mental abuse.

She was gripping one of his arms with her dainty hands while looking at him with weary and worn-down eyes. She had smiled at him but Naruto could still see the worry lines that were right under her pale eyes. Naruto clenched his teeth as he started to seethe with anger at himself. He looked away from her so he wouldn't have to look at the damage he has done to her.

_Because of you… she's hurting inside…_

* * *

Hinata watched Naruto with horror as she saw the grief, guilt, and anger that was conflicting in his eyes. She watched as he looked away from her while biting his lower lip as his blue eyes looked crestfallen and their usual boisterous light were suddenly turned pale with anger. She tried to get him to look at her by shaking his arm a little, but to no avail.

_No… No… No. No!_ Hinata screamed in her head as she looked pleading at her friend with her eyes brimming with tears. _Y-You aren't supposed to feel sorry, Naruto-kun! I agreed to this too! Please don't beat yourself up over this! Please!_

Hinata admitted that she had been scared at the kind of secondary chakra network Naruto had that was sealed within his stomach at first, but she knew that every problem had a reason, and that this unknown thing that Naruto was bearing had to have an explanation.

"Naruto-kun I—" Hinata started but was interrupted by the sound of something getting pierced.

* * *

Sasuke had thrown a few shuriken at Kakashi which had pierced the man into a nearby tree. The last Uchiha heir had originally thought that Naruto would be the first one to attack the man. But it seems that the blonde was a little smarter than he had let on… If only by a little bit.

Sasuke had taken his chance to strike when Kakashi was distracted by Naruto calling out the girl's name in the bushes nearby. By the sound of it, it seemed that Hinata was in pain.

_She must have tripped over a root or something… What a clumsy girl… _Sasuke thought as he watched the bushes rustle loudly, probably Naruto coming to her aid. But he was brought out of his thoughts when he saw Kakashi looking over at the bushes as well and started to make his way over to the other two.

But before he could reach out a hand to grab Naruto, that's when Sasuke struck. But instead of seeing a man pincushioned by shinobi weapons, a sudden poof of white smoke happened and a log was in Kakashi's place.

Sasuke growled and started to hop around the trees with silent steps as he tried to find a new location to hide. _Grr… Another __**Substitution Jutsu**__, and now he knows where I'm hiding. I've gotta move fast! _He suddenly landed on a tree branch hard and started to run across the trees with new speed.

_I thought he lowered his guard… But he did that on purpose! And I fell for it…_ Sasuke thought angrily as he continued his flight.

Unbeknownst to him, a calculating eye was watching the Uchiha run through the trees. _So that's where he is…_ Kakashi started to softly chuckle as he reached into his weapons pouch.

A whizzing sound suddenly ripped throughout the forest. Sasuke cringed as he quickly flipped over the incoming kunai and landed on the forest floor below. He saw that Kakashi was already there, leaning on a tree as he read his orange book.

"Very good Sasuke. I expected nothing less from an Uchiha." The cyclopean replied as he flipped a page in his book.

Sasuke's black onyx eyes narrowed at the man. "I'm not like Hinata and Naruto."

"Say that after you get one of these bells, my Sasuke." Kakashi chuckled as he got up from the tree and faced the young boy.

The two had a standoff as they both looked at each other, sizing up their opponent. Kakashi knew he had to be careful with this one so he paid his full attention on the brooding boy. Sasuke stuck first by again throwing some shuriken at the man.

Kakashi dodged as any Jōnin would as he stared at Sasuke lazily. "There's no point using normal attacks." The nin said as he was still sailing in mid-air.

Sasuke just had on an impassive face as he shot a kunai at him. Of course the white-haired man dodged, but the kunai suddenly cut a rope, throwing Kakashi off guard.

_A trap!_ Kakashi thought as he landed on the ground and skidded a few yards back towards the device. He quickly gripped the ground which stopped him in front of a tree, before he sprang up into the air again; avoiding the kunais and shurikens that were meant to impale him, but instead hit the tree behind him.

He again skid on the ground but Sasuke was right behind him with a kick that was coming in fast.

_What?!_ Kakashi quickly spun around and held up his arms to block the kick from hitting him. He quickly grabbed Sasuke's leg but the boy had other plans.

Sasuke grinned as he suddenly threw a punch at the man's head, only for it to be caught by the Hatake. But Sasuke wasn't finished yet. The Uchiha twisted his body downwards, making his free foot come up to hit their sensei with frightening speed. Sasuke smiled smugly up at Kakashi while he in turn was looking at the boy with confusion.

Sasuke had his free hand, which was the only limb that wasn't caught; reach up to grab the bells. Kakashi's eye widened in surprise.

_This kid…!_ Kakashi thought as Sasuke had grazed the bells with his fingertips. Kakashi used that moment to immediately let go off Sasuke and distance himself as far as possible away from the boy. Sasuke flipped back on his feet to avoid hitting his head at his previous position.

Kakashi started to look at Sasuke with narrowed, calculating eyes. _He's fierce. Hmph. I won't be able to read Icha Icha Paradise now._

Sasuke glared at their sensei. He was able to block all of his attacks and be fast enough to escape even when he had the bells in his grasp. That was a Jōnin for you; they were the best next to the ANBU.

"Well," Kakashi said while dusting himself off and standing straight, "you are different from the other two, I'll grant you that."

"Hn." Sasuke grunted as he suddenly started to flip through some seals. _Horse! Tiger!_ Sasuke suddenly had his hands clasped together as his first two fingers on each of his hands were pressed against his lips. _**Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!**_

Kakashi's eye widened in surprise as he stared at Sasuke's technique. "What?! Genin can't do fire jutsu; takes too much chakra! There's no way!"

But the former ANBU captain was about to be proven wrong. Sasuke suddenly balled a hand into a fist, put it against his lips, and blew out a great big ball of fire at Kakashi. The heat was soo intense that it had actually burned a crater where the man had stood. Sasuke had kept blowing until he felt it was alright and stopped the jutsu a minute or two later.

Once the fire had extinguished, Sasuke's eyes widened in surprise when he didn't find a burnt body on the ground. _Ah! Where did he go?! Behind me?! Above?!_ He started to looked around vigorously for where his sensei could be hiding.

"Where?" A voice said ominously, making Sasuke jump. A hand suddenly shot up from the ground and grabbed onto Sasuke's left leg. The boy gasped as he looked down to see his sensei's hand gripping firmly onto him.

"I'm where you least expect me…" Sasuke was suddenly pulled down into the ground as he shouted in pain from all of the gravel that was grazing, scratching, and nicking at his pale skin. He suddenly realized his head was the only part of his body that was above ground as the white-haired Jōnin was towering over him.

Kakashi squatted down to try to get to Sasuke's level as he looked down at the Uchiha. "…right under your feet. **Earth Style: Headhunter Jutsu.**" He watched as the boy was struggling to get out of his predicament. "Can't move huh? That was ninjutsu, the 3rd shinobi battle skill." Kakashi suddenly gave the raven-haired boy an eye smile as he still tried to get out. "You have talent, and you were right you are… different from the others but different isn't always better."

Kakashi stood up and turned around as he started to walk away from the Rookie of the Year. He took out his orange book yet again and began reading. "They say the nail that sticks up is the one that gets hammered down."

Sasuke growled as he directed his hate filled gaze at Kakashi. "Oh great!" He spat bitterly as he in fact, could not get out of his hole.

* * *

Naruto was laughing hard as he watched Kakashi-sensei pull Sasuke-teme down into the ground until he was just a head. Serves the jerk right for being such an ass all these years! He laughed even harder when Kakashi-sensei started to smite the boy. Man, this was golden!

Hinata had to admit that it was a very humorous… situation Sasuke had gotten himself into. But she knew that she had to help him even if he had degraded a few times. It was just in her nature and she knew that it was right.

"C-Come now Naruto-kun," She said probing the boy gently in the ribs, "w-we must go help Uchiha-san i-if your plan is going to work." Naruto had told Hinata of his idea when they were watching Sasuke and Kakashi-sensei duke it out with each other. The heiress was surprised that Naruto had come up with a brilliant idea, but he was an ingenious prankster and he had a knack for formulating plans that were out of this world good.

Naruto pouted at Hinata. As much as he hated working with the teme; heck, even being near him was bad! Yet, Hinata was right and they needed the jerk in order to fulfill his grand idea.

"Fine… We'll go help the ass get out of his hole." Naruto griped as he sat up and peered out of the bushes. They both waited until Kakashi was a safe distance away and began to move out. They zipped along the bushes with quiet strides and stopped once they were close enough to Sasuke.

Naruto found a rock and grinned. "Oi, teme!" He whispered as he threw the rock square on the Uchiha's head.

Sasuke felt something hard bounce along the top of his head. "Ow!" He started to look around until he saw Naruto and Hinata waving at him silently. Naruto was smiling mischievously as he started to toss another rock in his hand.

_That loser!_ Sasuke growled as he looked at Naruto with bloody murder flashing across his black pearly eyes and a long vein was pulsating on his forehead.

Naruto wanted to laugh but he settled for soft chuckles instead. Man, he loved being an asshole sometimes. Just seeing the angry look on people's faces when you annoyed them was just an awesome feeling! He looked around to see if their sensei lurking around, and then he motioned Hinata when they didn't see the white-haired cyclopean.

"Wow, look at you Sasuke-teme! You look _soo_ much better this way!" He grinned as he started to rub his chin. "I dunno, I kinda like you like that. Maybe you should get more into nature than your emo brooding, ne?"

Sasuke started to writhe around in his hole. "Damn you dobe! Get me out of here!"

"U-Uchiha-san, Naruto-kun, please l-let's try to get along so we can a-all defeat Kakashi-sensei together." Hinata said softly as she continued to scrap dirt off around Sasuke's neck.

It took a few minutes but they managed to get the raven-haired boy out, even if he was a little dirty. He dusted himself off as he glared at Naruto, who in fact was just giving the avenger his famous foxy grin.

"Aw, why are you looking at me like that Sasuke? I thought you were going to willingly cooperate with us!" Naruto mocked in a sickly sweet tone.

Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "And why would I work with a lowlife like you?" The two started to glare at each other as the electricity of rivalry started to spark between them. But before they could go at each other, Hinata intervened by getting in between them and pushing them apart.

"Please stop y-you guys. We have to work t-together as a team to defeat K-Kakashi-sensei." Hinata pleaded. "We already know that we c-can't take him on by o-ourselves… right, Uchiha-san?"

Sasuke grumbled and looked away from her. He absolutely hated it when he was wrong… but Hinata was right. Kakashi was very strong and he couldn't take him on by himself anymore.

"S-So Naruto-k-kun and I have discussed a plan that he has formulated."

Naruto nodded vigorously and he smiled at them with his eyes closed. "Yeah! Yeah! It's really good so listen up, Sasuke-teme!"

"Hn. _A plan that Naruto thought up of?_ The world must be ending." Sasuke grinned smugly as Naruto started to fume with his ears turning red and his ponytail sticking up.

"_Teme!_ I'm gonna—"

"Naruto! Sasuke! Stop it this instant!" Hinata shouted as she glared at them cutely with red puffed out cheeks. The two boys immediately stopped and stared at her in shock. They calmed down and started to mumble apologizes… even if it was incoherent.

Hinata sighed. "I-I'm sorry for y-yelling, but if you two keep arguing, then we will never beat sensei and we will fail when the time runs out." As if on cue, the timer clock ringed loudly throughout the training grounds. The trio jumped and Hinata started to wave her hands around frantically. "A-A-Alright, I-I explain the plan as quickly as I can!" And she started to relay everything she and Naruto had previously discussed to Sasuke.

* * *

Kakashi heard the bell ring and he looked up lazily from his perverted book. _Hmm. They're going to fail soon if they don't understand the concept of this exercise._ He snapped his book closed and stuffed it into his weapons pouch. _Oh well. Another team to disqualify just like all the others._

He was suddenly brought out of his thoughts when he heard a loud thumping noise nearby. Lazily, he craned his neck to see Naruto standing a few feet away with his arms crossed and a cocky grin that had spread across his lips.

"You and me, right now, fair and square! Let's go!" The lad exclaimed as he was practically radiating the need for a fight.

Kakashi deadpanned. _I was wondering when he was going to show up… But I almost feel like I regret it now…_ "You know compared to the others you're a little bit… weird."

"Oh yeah?! The only thing weird here is your haircut!" Naruto shot back and suddenly he started to charge at the Jōnin.

Kakashi stared at the boy lazily but he knew that he had to be weary of the orange clad boy. He had more than proven that he had trained very hard to be able to grasp the beginnings of chakra manipulation. Genin weren't even supposed to be able to start those kinds of lessons until they had gone on various missions.

_But apparently he has exceeded the normal expectations of a newly promoted Genin… Interesting…_ Kakashi thought but was brought out of it when Naruto was suddenly in the air and had an axe kick at the ready over Kakashi's head.

Said man quickly evaded the attack by a mere second. The force of the kick was soo strong that Naruto had managed to make a tiny crater.

_Amazing! A normal kick like that would have never conflicted soo much damage!_ The cyclops narrowed his eye at Naruto, sizing the boy up. _It seems he had managed to push more chakra into his foot to give him that extra power boost!_

"Shinobi battle techniques…" He started to say to the Uzumaki as he regained his composure. "… Part 1. Taijutsu. The physical art."

Naruto stared at his sensei with surprise… and confusion. _Taijutsu? That's hand to hand combat!_ He watched his teacher as he reached into his weapons pouch. Naruto began to growl. _Then why is he reaching for a weapon?! _Then all of a sudden, he watched Kakashi-sensei pull out his perverted orange book again.

"What the—?!" Naruto shouted out loud with a small tinge of pink staining his cheeks. How sleazy was this guy?!

"Wait are you waiting for?" Kakashi asked the boy as he looked at his book with a dull stare. "Make your move."

"But…! I mean…! Why are you reading that book?!"

"Why? To find out what happens in the story of course. Don't let it bother you. With your weak attacks it doesn't really matter if I'm reading or whatever." Kakashi answered with a bored voice. Truth be told, Kakashi wasn't really paying attention to his book at all (shocker isn't it?). Instead he was just simply waiting for Naruto to display his training and knowledge he had learned at the Ninja Academy.

* * *

Naruto deadpanned and growled with his hair sticking out more than usual. If you had seen him, he mostly looked like an angry bear. _This guy…! I'm gonna—!_ Suddenly, the blonde felt a light hit of a pebble bounce on the back of skull, reminding him of his plan.

He started to grumble. _Oh yeah… The plan…_ As much as he wanted to destroy his sensei, he had to stick with the plan… which he had so brilliantly come up with himself. Naruto calmed himself down by taking in a deep breath before letting it out again.

Kakashi looked up and raised an eyebrow at the boy. He hadn't exploded yet?

Naruto smirked at Kakashi-sensei as soon as he saw the confused expression he had on his face. Ha! Naruto had him where he wanted him! "Heh! Get ready sensei, 'cause I'm not gonna let up on you!"

Kakashi stared at the orange loving boy. "I don't expect you to."

Naruto bounced on the balls of his feet with his fists held up and his blue eyes watching his opponent with unwavering eyes. The blonde suddenly dashed at his sensei with terrifying speed, shocking the Hatake.

_He's even faster than last time! _Kakashi deduced. He quickly stopped Naruto's punch with his hand but he was somehow forced back a few inches. _Incredible! His power is even greater than I had initially thought!_

Naruto grinned at his shocked teacher. Ha! The lazy bastard hadn't expected that! Well he wouldn't be ready for the blonde's next move. Naruto quickly bent over and stood on his hands and then started to make his body spin with his legs spread out at a 180 degree angle (think of those guys break dancing while spinning). The speed of his unpredictable attack gradually increased as Naruto's hold on the ground was tightened.

Kakashi had to cross his arms as he blocked the attack and felt his book fly out of his hands. He hadn't counted on Naruto to be able to use such a… _unique_ attack on him. And the white-haired man was at an even greater disadvantage because he was dangerously close to the boy, and by the speed of his spinning, one hit would cause major damage to the Jōnin's body.

_Damn…! At this rate I won't be able to hold my guard up for much longer…!_ The attack had lasted for more than 90 seconds and Naruto's attack had increased by each second that had gone by. But luckily for the man, Naruto wasn't holding out too well either.

Naruto was getting dizzy from his spinning. Sure it was a neat attack and all but it had required a focused mind and to be able to tolerate mass spins. Which of course… he was terrible at… Naruto felt his hands slip and he fell painfully onto the training ground's floor. Kakashi took this time to hop back a few feet while Naruto was lying in an awkward position.

The ponytailed boy had both his arms crossed awkwardly under his chin; his torso was sticking up straight in the air as his feet were dangling near his spiky blonde head. His eyes swirled, indicating that he was dizzy.

"Very good… _attack_ Naruto." Kakashi complemented. He stood up straight and started to dust himself off. "But I think you still need to work on that… what was it?"

"A… A… A sort of spinny thing that's like the Hyuuga's **Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation**… I-I saw the guy there do it once…" Naruto replied with his voice sounding wobbly and his face looking like he was about to vomit.

…

_FLASHBACK_

_Naruto was walking along merrily with Hinata. They had just come from the Academy and were planning on eating at Ichiraku's ramen shop. Naruto had pleaded Hinata to come eat with him after the end of class. She hesitated at first, knowing that her guard, Hyuuga Ko, was going to be upset with her for hanging out with Naruto, but she was easily coaxed when he had given her his puppy dog eyes._

_Naruto was wearing an orange vest with a blue undershirt, green khaki shorts, his blue sandals, and of course his hair was still in a ponytail. He put his hands behind his head as started to whistle a happy tune. Hinata wore a sandpapered color jacket that had a white hood; a purple inside shirt, and some black expendable pants along with her blue sandals._

_She saw Naruto whistling and smiled at him. "Y-You sure are in a-a happy mood today, Naruto-kun."_

"_Of course I am!" Naruto beamed at her. "We haven't hung out like this in a long time! You always go on those fancy-shmancy family trips, while I'm stuck here training or working around the shop with old lady Mel!"_

_Hinata giggled. Naruto introduced her to the tailor shop owner named Hosokaya Mel not too long ago. He told her how she had accepted him into her shop… Although, she would often make the boy work whenever he would come in for a visit._

"_Oi! Don't laugh at me Hinata-chan!" Naruto pouted as he folded his arms. "She's a real sadist! You try working for her for a day!"_

"_I-I don't think M-Mel-san is all that bad Naruto-kun. She seems r-really nice to me."_

"_That's because she _is_ nice to you! But when it's me it always 'Go clean this!' or, 'That doesn't go on yer head ya brat!' or, 'Me mother has more muscles then ye!' and so on… What a grouch…" He grumbled._

_Hinata began laughing at the boy's attitude. Ever since Naruto and she were friends, Hinata has been able to open herself more to people. She would sometimes go sit with the boys in class, or try to talk to Sakura or Ino, and would occasionally play games with the other kids. To her, Naruto has been a great influence on her life. She's even stuttered less and started to make conversations her sister more than usual!_

_They finally reached Ichiraku's and Naruto let Hinata go inside first. Hinata wasn't the only one influenced by their friendship. Naruto has been influenced by the heiress as well. He is a snippet calmer than usual; he has gotten more in tuned in reading, he acts a little more gentlemanly now, and Hinata has even helped improved his cooking skills be ten times better! Yes, ever since he and Hinata were friends, Naruto's lifestyle has gone from in the gutters to peaceable and cleanliness._

_They both sat down side by side at the stools. Naruto grinned and started to bang his fist on the counter. Well I did saw he was _a little_ more gentlemanly…_

"_Hey, Jiji! Two bowls of ramen please!" Naruto shouted eagerly, his banging getting louder._

"_Hey there Naruto, Hinata-san. What'll it be?" Teuchi asked the duo as he smiled at them. Teuchi was a very kind and jovial man. He was often seen smiling, and he and his daughter, Ayame, have always treated Naruto well over the years; but not only that, they also consider him their best customer. But Teuchi always did consider a craftsman and he would always get made if one bowl of ramen was made wrong. Much to Naruto's shock and confusion._

_Naruto grinned as he started rub his hands together and drool started to trickle out of the corners of his mouth. "Oh yeah! I'll have pork ramen— No wait, chicken! No, no, pork! And I want 3 eggs, with 4 strips of chicken, an eggroll, and 2 narutos!" He didn't know why he was named after food but he guessed that his parents were hungry or something and named him after a piece food. That was fine by him because he loved to eat._

"_Naruto, maybe you should go easy on the ramen there, you're gonna explode if you put too much stuff in it!" A voice said behind Teuchi. The person came up to the two kids and she smiled at them. This was Ayame, Teuchi's only daughter. Ayame was a slender girl with long, brown hair and eyes, plus fair skin. She wears a white robe with the sleeves folded, a sort of dark blue apron with ribbon ties at the top and a bright white bandanna. Her father wore the same thing only he didn't have an apron and he wore a small chef's hat._

_Naruto grinned at her with his eyes smiling. "Hey Ayame! Don't worry about me! I'm just extra hungry today is all!"_

"_Oh is that so?" She suddenly looked at Hinata and gave her a mischievous smile. Ayame is a kind and cheerful young woman, but she could also be very devious at times and would pry and gossip about people's lives of whom she has seen. She could also read people's emotions very well, by their words or their body languages._

_Hinata saw the young woman's suggestive motives and blushed horribly and started to look at her fingers as they played with each other on the counter._

_Ayame giggled at the shy girl and looked back at Naruto. He was looking at her quizzically and asking if she was alright._

_Interesting…__ The trainee cookette thought. She suddenly squealed and started to bounce up and down a little. __The starting of young romance!_

_Naruto looked at Hinata, then Ayame, and back again. Hinata was suddenly blushing and Ayame was jumping up and down for no reason. The whiskered boy had absolute no idea what was going on._

_Is it a girl thing…?__ He thought. It seemed like it, what with the two girls' suddenly acting weird._

_Teuchi suddenly set Naruto's bowl down in front of him, and the boy instantly began to wolf it down. "What would you like Hinata-san?"_

"_O-One bowl of mi-miso r-ramen p-please." Hinata squeaked politely. She was still embarrassed that Ayame was giving her that face. Hinata knew exactly what that meant and her cheeks were stinging from the heat that was suddenly applied to them._

_Teuchi was about to start to make the Hyuuga heiress hers, but his daughter had interrupted him. "S'okay Dad, I've got this."_

"_B-But…!" Teuchi tried to protest._

_Ayame rounded on her father with her hands on her hips and she had a scowl leering at him at full force. "Geez Dad! Can't I just take care of __**one single **__**bowl?!**__ I'm a trainee but I know how to make a simple miso bowl!"_

_The ramen chef immediately shrank back in fear. He nodded hesitantly and his daughter started to make the ramen with a huff._

_Naruto felt his sweat drop. "Is there somethin' going on with those two or what?" Naruto whispered to his counterpart._

_Hinata blushed heavily and started to poke her fingers. "I-I d-don't know Na-Naruto-kun…"_

_Naruto looked at Hinata with a raised brow. She was stuttering more than usual. Naruto had begun to read Hinata more since they would be around each other a lot. Like when she put her head in her hands, she was frustrated. Or when she would cross her legs and alternated them from time to time, she would be either nervous or impatient. Or when she tapped her fingers on her legs, she was in deep thought._

_But as he looked at her, he realized that when she stuttered often in her sentences and played with her hair or her fingers, she was embarrassed about something._

_Did something happen between her and Ayame…?__ He thought as he chomped on his eggroll. He tried to ponder it more but found nothing so he shrugged. __It must be a girl thing…_

_Ayame placed Hinata's bowl in front of her. Hinata thanked her and got some chopsticks. She snapped it in half and began delicately eating her meal. As Hinata was about to reach for another clump of ramen, she saw something floating in her bowl._

_Huh?__ Hinata grabbed it with her sticks and pulled it out. It was a soggy piece of paper. __A n-note?__ She looked quizzically at it but the shy Hyuuga opened it nonetheless._

_Hinata began to read it and her whole face suddenly turned red with her ears burning hotly._

"_Good luck in capturing Naruto for yourself! I'm rootin' for ya!" _—_Ayame_

_Hinata started to grip the paper hard as her blush intensified with each passing second. __Wh-Why would A-Ayame-san wr-write this…! N-Naruto-k-kun isn't mine…! He's… H-He's…_

"_Hinata?"_

_The shy girl looked at her crush and squeaked in surprise. Naruto was dangerously close to her face as he looked at her curiously. Their noses were almost touching for Pete's sake!_

"_You alright? Your face is red." His eyes suddenly widened with worry. "A-Are you sick? Do you have a fever? Do you need a doctor? Do you need to go to the hospital? Do you want to go home? Do you—"_

_He suddenly stopped when Ayame clonked him on his head. Naruto tried to soothe his ingrown lump as he glared at Ayame with a tear in his eye. "H-Hey! What the hell was that for Ayame?!"_

"_Stop asking so many damn questions Naruto!" She yelled back at him using Iruka's _**Big ****Head ****no ****Jutsu**_._

"_Well __**excuse**__ me for worrying about her!" Naruto shot back. Geez! What was everybody's problem today?!_

_Ayame felt a tick mark ping on her forehead. Sometimes the blonde could be such a…! "You worry about her like she's your girlfriend! She's perfectly—!" Ayame stopped and she suddenly had a Cheshire like grin that stretched across her lips. "Ohh… Is she your girlfriend Naruto?"_

_Both of the friends' faces turned red… well for Hinata it was crimson._

"_N-N-No!" Naruto stammered out. How did Ayame come up with that heinous idea?! He and Hinata were just best friends! Nothing more, nothing less. It didn't matter if they spent a lot of time together, or how pretty Hinata was. They were just… Wait… WHERE DID HE GET THAT THOUGHT FROM?!_

"_Oh really?" Ayame raised a brow at the whiskered boy. "But you two spend so much time together. Almost like… a couple!"_

_Hinata felt her vision slipping her. __A-A-A couple…?!__ She and Naruto were most defiantly _not_ a couple. They were just best friends and they weren't going to be anything more. The thought made her heart sting and she clenched at her beige jacket._

"_W-We aren't a c-couple Ayame! Stop saying that!" Naruto shouted at his surrogate sister. Why was she doing this to him and Hinata? Sure they walked around a lot, and sure they did spend most of their time together than with their other friends, but that didn't mean they were together like… like _that_!_

_Ayame grinned at him. Now she had him right where she wanted him. "You aren't…? Oh that's a shame." Ayame said with a fake sigh of disappointment. She started to walk away, giving the two a breath of relief, but then she turned back around and looked at Naruto innocently. "But wait… Don't you call Hinata, Hinata-__**chan**__?"_

"_Yeah, what of it?" Naruto said rudely._

_Ayame tapped a finger on her cheek and looked at the ceiling in pretend thought. "But isn't that like a pet name that couples use…?"_

_They both blushed again, this time both of their faces were the color crimson._

_It… It's a pet name?!__ Naruto felt his ears burn painfully. Had he really given Hinata a pet name…? I mean, he did hear some dude call a girl "–chan", but he had originally thought that they were friends. But now that he thought about it, those two looked like they were on a date!_

_Naruto glanced at Hinata and saw that she was looking at him too. So once their eyes met, they quickly looked in different directions with Hinata poking her fingers together and Naruto rubbing the back of his head sheepishly._

_Ayame burst with laughter at the two embarrassed kids. It was soo good embarrassing people, she didn't know why she liked it but she did! Teuchi was watching the whole thing, chuckling softly as he was drying out ramen bowls with a towel._

_Naruto couldn't take it anymore and he suddenly slammed his hands on the counter and stood up from his stool. "SH-SHUT UP AYAME! '–chan' isn't a pet name! I also heard some ladies use it with one another too!" It was true because the other day he did see some women address each other with "–chan" as they assorted their fruits and vegetables._

_Ayame's laughter subsided slowly and she started to pout at Naruto. __Aww… He found out…__ She suddenly perked up with another idea and she placed her elbow on the counter and leaned on it as she held her head with her hand._

"_Okay you win that round. But tell me this, do you guys… hug perchance?" She asked them._

_Naruto rubbed his chin in thought as he sat back down while Hinata tapped a finger on her leg as she thought as well. Her blush subsided a little, but her cheeks maintained its dark red glow. They both nodded when they were done thinking._

_Ayame grinned hugely as she suddenly looked at Naruto with a light blush on her face. "Tell me Naruto, was Hinata-__**chan**__ really soft when you hug her?"_

_10 seconds passed._

_Then 30._

_Then a full minute passed and that was when Naruto screamed. "WHAT?!"_

_Ayame looked at him annoyed but she still had her pink hue on her cheeks. "I said was Hinata-__**chan**__ really soft when you hug her? Are you deaf or something?"_

_Naruto felt his face suddenly turn a shade darker than the color crimson (if that was possible). He gripped the edge of his orange jacket as steam started flow out of his ears. Why would Ayame ask a question— No, a _**perverted**_ question like that? As much as he didn't want to, Naruto found himself recalling the last time they hugged. It was the day Hinata first left the village to go on a vacation. She had come to him to tell him of the news, of course he was sad and disappointed, but cheered up when he she told him that she would be back in a week or so and gave him a hug._

_Naruto tried block the feeling by squeezing his eyes shut, but it didn't help in the least. It seemed to encourage him to re-feel that feeling. He remembered now. He had wrapped his arms around her, Hinata's body was super soft and small, like a pillow. Her skin was cool to the touch when he felt her arms against his neck (she had rolled up her jacket's sleeves). And her hair, her hair tickled his cheeks when he placed his head on top of hers. Her hair smelled of vanilla and various of flowers… it was intoxicating once he found out that he couldn't stop smelling her scent. So when she left, he was reluctant to let her go, but he had too. So he gave her one final squeeze and waved goodbye when they parted ways._

_Ayame grinned deviously once she saw that Naruto's eyes were half close with a dazed expression and he was drooling a bit. She laughed once she saw that Hinata was blushing furiously and swaying in her seat as she tried to hold onto consciousness._

_Oh yeah! I am good!__ Ayame thought triumphantly. She snapped her fingers in Naruto's face, effectively bringing him out of his memories. "You alright Naruto? Noticed you were drooling a bit there!"_

_Said boy blushed harder, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and pointed an accusing finger at her. "Wh-Why would you say such a pervy thing like that?!"_

"_Says the pervert."_

_Hinata stopped swaying and stared at her crush in shock. Was he really one of those… those… those kinds of people?! Hinata couldn't believe it, but she had to know. "Na-Na-Naruto-kun…? A-Are you r-really a per… a per… a-a voyeur…?!"_

_Naruto blushed harder and started to wave his arms around in defense. Why would Hinata think of him like that?! He wasn't one of those sleazy guys! "N-No, no, and hell no! I-I'm not one of them! You've got to believe me Hinata-chan!" He pleaded to her._

"_Says the guy who was drooling earlier, fantasying how great that hug was." Ayame declared with a smile. She put a hand on her hip, cocked it to the side, and rubbed her chin with her other hand. She had a glint in her eyes that spelled trouble. "Tell me Naruto, did you ever think about how soft Hinata's chest was when you guys hugged?"_

_Two things happened. Hinata couldn't handle the pressure and fainted, while Naruto was staring at Ayame with comically wide eyes as his jaw nearly hit the counter. And then the young woman saw Naruto's skin suddenly sport on a dark crimson color… Wait, is that three or two things…?_

_Anyway, Ayame wondered if the color of red Naruto was displaying was healthy for him. He looked like he was flat out __**boiling**__. She started to laugh when Naruto suddenly hopped out of his seat, grab Hinata and put her on his back, left the money on the counter, and hightailed it out of there leaving a trail of dust and steam in his wake._

_The ramen shop owner's daughter started to roll on the floor while her laughs escalated. Teuchi stared after Naruto with surprise written all of his face. "I don't think I've ever seen Naruto blush that hard before… Heck, I haven't even seen him blush once!" He said to her._

_Ayame tried to agree with him, but her laughs were too strong for her to get rid of so quickly._

…

_Everyone was staring at the whiskered boy in shock. If you had seen him you would have notice that, 1. He was carrying the Hyuuga clan's heiress on his back, 2. The heiress had fainted and had dirt smudges on her clothes and hair, 3. The Nine-Tails' Jinchuriki looked angry instead of happy, and 4. That the boy was __**blushing**__._

_Naruto was grumbling as he walked down the dirt roads towards the Hyuuga household. It had taken him at least 10 minutes to stop himself from blushing hard. What Ayame had said… it was really new and embarrassing for the young lad._

"_No doubt Hinata-chan's embarrassed too." He muttered as he trudged along. "I mean, why the hell did she have to say that?! It's her fault she made Hinata faint! It's her fault that she made me think about Hinata's soft… small… thin… pretty… and— Damn! There I go again!" Naruto shook his head vigorously of his thoughts and his new blush that was spreading across his nose._

_A few minutes later of constantly shaking his head and getting rid of what he considers "dirty thoughts" of Hinata; Naruto had reached the Hyuuga compound. He looked around and saw that no one was guarding it._

_What the…? Aren't there usually guards around clan houses?__ Naruto didn't have access to his hands so he banged the large wooden double doors loudly with a foot._

_A few silent moments had passed before Naruto had gotten annoyed and started to hit his foot against the door again, this time louder than before._

"_HEY! THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! OPEN UP DAMN IT!" Naruto screeched with a vein bursting on his forehead. The boy really wasn't in the mood today and he wanted to take a cold shower. His instincts had told him that it was to most appropriate thing to do._

_The door suddenly creaked open slowly. A man with the same eyes as Hinata came out, but his pale eyes were narrowed with controlled anger. He had long, black hair, and featureless pale eyes like Hinata. He wore a very traditional, loose fitting robes with a long-sleeved, brown haori. The man had an indifferent and stern air about him, but Naruto ignored it completely._

_Naruto stared at the man in confusion. This wasn't the man that always hanged around Hinata. Hinata's guard had light dark brown hair, which was short with backwards spikes. And he would always wear a black, long-sleeved kimono with white edges and rims._

"_Who the hell are you?" Naruto asked the man dumbly._

_Hyuuga Hiashi stared at the boy in shock. Not only did the whiskered child managed to sully the Hyuuga compound's traditional doors by rudely banging on it with his feet no less, but the boy actually had enough balls to talk to him with disrespect. Him! The Hyuuga Clan's head!_

_Hiashi blinked, snapping out of his state of shock. "I should be asking you the same question, boy." The clan head said crudely. He then peered at the boy closer and realized that Naruto was the Kyuubi's jailer. So that's why the boy was soo rude. He had expected as much from… him…_

_Naruto looked up at the man with his infamous closed-eyes and poked out the bottom of his lip. "Yeah well I'm lookin' for Hinata-chan's Dad, you know him Jiji?"_

_Old… Man…?__ The boy had just called him an old man. Hiashi's eyes widened a fraction of an inch. Although this boy was rude, he still had enough balls to, 1. Hold his daughter in what he considers an, "inappropriate way", 2. He had had addressed his daughter by the name of Hinata-__**chan**__, and 3. He had addressed the leader of the most powerful clan in Konoha, an old man. The lad was interesting but good gracious, how did this boy fit his pants?!_

"_Yes. I am he." Hiashi responded after a while of staring._

_Naruto had paled instantaneously. He couldn't believe that _this_ guy was Hinata's dad, and he had addressed him like that! Oh man, Naruto knew he was screwed._

_He chuckled nervously. "S-So you're the old— I mean, Hinata-cha— I mean, Hinata's Dad…?"_

_Hiashi nodded curtly. "Yes, but I am also the Hyuuga Clan's head." He watched as the boy paled into his skin color resembled a white sheet. The Hyuuga's eyes glinted with amusement while the rest of his face remained impassive. "__**Who are you?**__ And what are you doing with _my_ daughter?"_

_Shit shit shit shit shit!__ Naruto swore. He was dead meat— No, he was beyond dead; he was going to be __**incinerated**__! What kind of father wouldn't be angry if he found out that his daughter was held by some unknown boy, and that boy had just insulted you in __**your own home**__!_

_Naruto smiled nervously as he bowed slightly in apology. "S-Sorry there, umm… sir, but I had… uhh… What I meant to say was… Hi-Hinata-chan and I… ahh…"_

_Hiashi raised a brow. "Come inside, boy." He then turned and walked inside the compound._

_Ugh, He's gonna kill me!__ Naruto hung his head in despair. This man, Hinata's Dad, was gonna chop him up with the family sword and bury his pieces somewhere outback!_

_Naruto heard Kurama snickering but ignored it, because he had much bigger problems than that old fox. He had his best friend's dad to watch out for. And by the looks of the other members of the Hyuuga Clan, they wanted to get as far away from the man as possible… just like he does right now!_

_They had entered a room that looked to be a girl's bedroom and he motioned for Naruto to set Hinata down on the bed. "Put her in her bed. She will only be a hindrance in our… discussion."_

_Naruto complied and set Hinata down, but frowned at the man's words. "What do you mean by hindrance, uhh…"_

"_Hiashi. But it's Hiashi-__**sama**__ to you, boy." He warned. He led Naruto down the hallways to his office._

"_Yeah. Hiashi-sama." Naruto said dismissively, making Hiashi narrow his eyes at him. "Anyway, back to my question. What do you mean Hinata-chan is a hindrance or whatever?"_

_The clanhead looked straight ahead with a frown on his face. "Hinata is… a distraction for everyone. She is too gentle, and is invisible. She is unnoticed, and therefore, a waste of mine and everyone else's time."_

_Naruto growled lowly. This guy was her father and he talked about her that way?! Naruto didn't like this one bit. How dare he say that?! About his own kin no less!_

"_Like hell she is!" Naruto spat angrily, stopping the authoritative man in his tracks to look at him, shocked. "How could you say that about your own daughter?! What kind of father are you?! Hinata is not a waste of time, she's a great filler _of_ time! She negotiates well, she can be diplomatic at times, and she's a kickass fighter!" Naruto looked at the man with his blue eyes narrowing, blazing with fury. "The only waste of time is you, and your stupid clan for putting Hinata down all the time!"_

_Naruto turned around, and began to storm away from the man to the clan's entrance. As he walked, he looked back at the man over his shoulder. "You think you know Hinata, well you don't. None of you do. So stop being a lazy-ass pompous clanhead and get your facts straight about your own daughter ya idjit!" And with that, Naruto stalked out of the Hyuuga compound, leaving a very shocked Hyuuga Hiashi, and majority of the Hyuugas who were present at the display._

_Naruto did leave, but he did see something interesting before he left. He saw some kid spinning around really fast in a dome of what it looked like to be, wind._

…

_A day later, Naruto asked Hinata about his discovery at the Hyuuga compound. She was a bit reluctant because 1. Naruto isn't a clan member and shouldn't know about the main household's abilities, and her father was very mad at his… mockery of him and the clan, and warned her to stay away from him. But Hinata didn't understand why her father paid attention to her now, so she had actually _disobeyed_ her father's orders and told Naruto anyway. Plus he was begging her with puppy dog eyes again._

_FLASHBACK END_

…

Kakashi stared at Naruto incredulously. He had actually _seen_ the **Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation**?! And the lad had actually managed to make a spin-off of it and use it as his own attack! It was… it was… ingenious…!

He was about to question the boy further when a sudden burst of fire caught his attention. The Jōnin expertly evaded it and watched as Sasuke ran over to stand by Naruto.

His one eye widened. _So they're learning to work together huh? Took them long enough…_ He started to like around for the third team member. _Now, where is that little Hyuuga girl…?_

"Get up dobe." Sasuke prodded the boy with his foot to Naruto's ribs.

Naruto growled at Sasuke. "Why don't you try to spin around on your hands at a 180 degree angle going around for like 75 miles per hour! Teme!"

Kakashi stared at the two arguing males, sighing at their behavior. _Some things will never change… _All of a sudden, Kakashi felt an exploding pain in his lower back. He craned his neck to see Hinata's Kekkei Genkai activated and one of her hands pressed hard against his back.

_"**Palm Heel Strike!**"_ She exclaimed, and she sent one final chakra burst to her hand's heel and sent her sensei flying a few feet.

Kakashi quickly regained his footing on the ground, but staggered a bit as he stood up. "I see. Naruto and Sasuke were the decoys to distract me as you snuck up behind where I had my guard lowered down. That's when you struck. Very clever, the lot of you."

Naruto grinned, Sasuke smirked, and Hinata smiled. Kakashi rubbed his throbbing back, and winced as he did so.

"Hinata," He addressed the young girl, "it seems you have not hit me with all of your might. Isn't that so?"

Naruto and Sasuke stared at her. Hinata began to fidget with her jacket as her knees started to rub against each other. Her flinted from her sensei, to the ground. "H-Hai sensei…"

Kakashi sighed. "And from what—" He stopped as he realigned his back again, making all of them wince at the painful snap. "—I can understand, the **Palm Heel Strike** is a quick, precise thrust of the users' palm to an opponent's body."

"H-Hai."

"But like all of the **Gentle** **Fist** techniques, it sends chakra into the target to cause internal damage which will temporarily paralyze an opponent… Is that correct?"

Both Naruto and Sasuke looked at Hinata with shock written all of their features. Hinata and her clan possessed the ability to conflict that much damage to a person? Hinata saw their expressions and looked away from them with an embarrassed face.

"H-Hai…" She answered meekly. Kakashi raised a brow. It seemed that not only Naruto, but Hinata also was great at using chakra manipulation. And from what he experienced with his fight with Sasuke earlier that the boy too was exceptional in it as well. Now the Hatake really had an interesting batch this year.

"So tell me this, why is it that you're using only 1/3 of your power against me?" Kakashi asked.

Sasuke's black onyx eyes widened at the remark. He turned to look at his female teammate and saw that she was shrinking under the hard gaze of their teacher. The girl was using _a third_ of her power? By Kakashi's observational remark on her clan's attack, Hinata should have been able to paralyze their sensei and they would have won! What was setting her back?!

Naruto, on the other hand, thought it was cool that Hinata had possessed such strength. Now he really wanted to spar against her!

Hinata started to push her two fingers together as she looked down at the ground guiltily. "I-It's just that… I-I don't want to hurt you s-sensei…"

Kakashi sighed and ran a hand through his gravity defying hair. He didn't really know how to deal with shy ones. He was mostly assigned cocky, overly confident, energetic, and silent ones. Maybe he would ask Kurenai about how to deal with Hinata. The woman used to be the small Hyuuga's nanny after all.

"Hinata. Rule#1 to a shinobi's guide: A ninja must rid all of his emotions on the battle field…"

The heiress heard a whoosh before she realized she was a second too late. She looked up hesitantly to see Kakashi pressing a finger on the middle of her forehead while having two fingers against his masked lips.

"… unless he risks himself and his team of dying." He finished and his fingers twitched. Hinata suddenly felt her eyes get heavy and she wobbled unsteadily. She fell flat on her face and slipped away into unconsciousness.

* * *

Naruto watched with horror as Kakashi-sensei suddenly appear right in front of Hinata with his finger on her forehead. The next thing he knew, Kakashi-sensei had stepped aside and let Hinata fall flat on his face.

_What kind of guy lets a girl fall like that?!_ Naruto growled. _I'm_ _gonna_ _kill him!_ Naruto started to run towards their supposed "teacher", only to be held back by Sasuke with a hand on his shoulder.

"**What do you want?!"** Naruto yelled darkly at the boy, his eyes changing from blue to red.

Sasuke was surprised at Naruto's dark tone, but let it slide… for now. "Naruto, calm down. If you take a minute and look, you'll see that he's got Hinata under a genjustu."

Naruto looked at Hinata and saw her delicate body rise and fall. She was still breathing. Naruto sighed in relief. He thought Kakashi had hit her with some sort of brain jutsu that would have ended her life.

Sasuke watched Naruto sigh and saw his counterpart's eyes return to their normal color.

_I wonder what that was…_ Sasuke thought. Naruto wasn't an Uchiha, but he had clearly seen the blonde's eyes turn into the color red. The Uchiha narrowed his eyes. Did Naruto have some sort of unknown Kekkei Genkai?

"So what are we going to do Sasuke-teme?" Naruto asked him. He wouldn't normally ask for help from anyone, except Hinata maybe, and he definitely wouldn't ask help from Sasuke but Hinata was in trouble, time was running out, and without Hinata in their plan, everything would awry.

"First, we're going to need a diversion. Then, one of us would have to grab Hinata and undo the genjustu. After that, we can proceed as planned." Sasuke relayed. But how were they going to get a diversion long enough to keep Kakashi at bay? Sure he could use his **Fireball Jutsu**, but it was a _fireball_ jutsu and not a _firestream_ jutsu.

Naruto grinned cockily with determination shining in his eyes. "A diversion? You got it!" He suddenly crossed his two fingers together to perform his jutsu. _"__**Shadow Clone Jutsu!**_" A cloud of white blanketed the duo and suddenly 7 Narutos sprang out of the cloud and went for the Jōnin.

"It looks like the stories were true. He can create Shadow Clones." Kakashi thought as he stared at the approaching Narutos with controlled shock. "It's a forbidden skill, and he defeated Mizuki with it."

The clones all surrounded Hatake in a semi-circle. They all grinned and some of them cracked their knuckles or punched their fists into their hands to try to intimidate their opponent. Plan or not, Naruto was gonna make sure this bastard paid for what he's done to Hinata. And he knew that he could make more, but without him eating breakfast, his energy levels were really low and Kurama's power hasn't even settled in yet. So 7 clones were all he could muster for the time being.

"Great technique, but I don't think you can maintain it for long." The Narutos began to charge at him while Kakashi just stood still. "You talk like you're the best, Naruto, but you're still the worst student." Kakashi stared at the closely approaching Naruto's with a bored expression. "You can't beat me with this jutsu." Suddenly, the bells that were tied around his belt had jingled. Kakashi felt something squeeze his back and he craned his neck to see Naruto grinning at him while he held on with his cobra constricting grip.

"What?!" Kakashi exclaimed as his eye widened. "He got me from behind!"

Naruto snickered diabolically. Now he had the bastard right where he wanted him. "As they say sensei, don't let your enemies get behind you!" He squeezed the man tighter as his clones grabbed onto his legs and arms. "I had one of my clones come out of the river," he said angling his fuzzy blonde head towards the body of water that was next by them, "then sneak up behind you super quiet."

Another clone suddenly jumped in the air and had a fist ready to punch Kakashi-sensei right in the kisser. "Now this is for nailing Hinata-chan!" It screeched and punched the white-haired man hard in the face.

Sasuke gave a small approving smile at Naruto's jutsu as he picked up the unconscious Hinata. _It really is a diversionary tactic… Nice…_

But when he punched the Jōnin… or at least… Naruto thought it _was_ a Jōnin…

The supposed "Jōnin" was replaced by another Naruto who had spat out blood from the punch. The 7 Narutos immediately stopped and looked around, whispering amongst themselves.

"Where's Kakashi-sensei?"

"I dunno, do you?"

"Nuh uh. No clue."

"Well he's gotta be around here somewhere!"

The real Naruto suddenly perked up with an idea. He quickly came into the middle of the circle of Narutos and held up his hands. "Instead of asking about where he is, I'll dispel the jutsu to see if he's one of us, 'ttebayo!" The clones all murmured in agreement. Naruto crossed his fingers and dispelled the jutsu. He looked around and saw that Sasuke and Hinata were gone and so was Kakashi-sensei.

"Looking for me?" A voice asked eerily behind him. Naruto gulped. He was screwed.

"Didn't you say, don't let you enemies get behind you? Good advice Naruto." Kakashi commented as he gave the boy his eye smile. As Naruto slowly turned around Kakashi put his two fingers together and had a giant glint in his eye.

"_**Leaf Village Secret Finger Jutsu…**_" Kakashi made his fingers jab into the boy's… umm… "rear end". Naruto cringed at first, but then his face had melted into a relived look with a small blush staining his cheeks. Kakashi formulated his chakra into Naruto's ass and sent the boy flying sky high. "_**…One Thousand Years of Death!**_"

Sasuke was watching the whole thing by some nearby bushes as he had released the genjustu on Hinata. He had his eyes closed and an eyebrow was twitching in annoyance.

"Those two are just… totally idiots…" He mumbled as Hinata started to sit up groggily. She looked around and looked at Sasuke with a confused expression. To her he looked… annoyed.

"D-Did something happen while I was s-spellbound, Uchiha-san?" Hinata asked the brooding boy.

Sasuke sighed and looked at her irritably. "You don't want to know." The bell had rung signifying that all of them lost and had to report to the posts. Both Sasuke and Hinata sighed simultaneously.

* * *

Hinata, Naruto, and Sasuke were all sitting at the three posts they were assigned to be at if they passed or failed. Well… It was more like Hinata and Sasuke were sitting, and Naruto was tied to a post while he was standing. Hinata felt her stomach grumble in harmony with the other two boys. She blushed horribly and pulled her beige jacket over her knees to hide her stomach. What an embarrassing conundrum she was in…

"Uh oh," Kakashi stated as he crossed his arms and looked down at his students, "stomachs growling huh? That's too bad." He turned around and faced his back to them. He grabbed his orange book and began to read it. Kakashi had retrieved it earlier when they were all meeting at the posts for the trio's evaluation. "But, it seems you understood the importance of being on a 3-man squad. Teamwork."

Kakashi turned towards Hinata first, making the shy girl jump in surprise. "Hinata, despite your shyness, you still managed to attack me to buy enough time for your teammates to not get struck with whatever attack I was about to throw next. You have a very clever and deceptive mind, and that's an important arsenal a kunoichi, such as yourself, must have." Hinata blushed and nodded towards him shyly.

He turned towards the Uchiha next. "Sasuke, despite your Uchiha blood, you still managed to help your teammates in dire need. You are very tactful and your eyes are very sharp of finding things that have gone amiss. Something a shinobi will also need for his battles. Not only that but, even though you and Naruto bicker a lot, you had managed to put aside your differences and come up with a plan to help out your fallen teammate instead of concerning more about the enemy, which is me. Very good." Sasuke smirked but nodded respectively towards the man.

Kakashi sighed and turned towards Naruto. Naruto just looked at him with anticipating eyes. Kakashi scratched the back of his head and began. "And last but least, Naruto… You are the most energetic, the most rambunctious, the most annoying, the most—"

"Okay, okay I get it. Sheesh." Naruto grumbled at the man, a blonde eyebrow twitching with annoyance.

Kakashi cleared his throat. "Anyway, you are all those things but you are the most important part of the squad. Sure you are the most temperamental of the group, but you somehow managed to stick the team together even if you use harsh words. Your powerful attacks can be able to sustain enough damage on the enemy to either, help your teammates escape, or hold of your opponent long enough to let your teammates come up with a plan or call for reinforcements. Your unpredictable attacks is what makes the team strong and holds out in the long run. So… keep it up."

Naruto started to shake has he smiled hugely. "YATTA!" He cheered and started to move his legs up and down with excitement. Sasuke grumbled something about Naruto acting like a loser, but Hinata was elated for him. She clapped and giggled at his antics and couldn't help herself but to go along with him. Naruto was just so fun at times, it was hard not to celebrate with him!

Kakashi sighed. "Hold on, I'm not finished yet." He said with a little bit of irritation edging its way into his voice. The duo stopped but Naruto still had a big, fat grin on his face while Hinata had a happy smile plastered on hers.

"Since the 3 of you have performed so well, I will give you 1 more chance to try to defeat me… As a team." The Jōnin suddenly pointed at Naruto while looking at the boy with a blank expression. "Eat lunch now to build up strength. But, Naruto doesn't get any."

* * *

Naruto growled at the man with narrowed eyes. What did he do to get tied to the post?! He came up with the plan, he helped Sasuke pull Hinata out by being a decoy, what did he do so wrong to get punished like this?!

"Hey hey hey! What did I do to get tied to this stupid post?!" Naruto shouted at him while he thrashed around in his prison.

"Well Naruto," Kakashi began as he started to scratch his hair, "this is your punishment for your brash behavior. You need to learn to be able to be calm in tense situations. For example…" He suddenly appeared behind Hinata and placed a kunai on her throat, shocking the girl. "Sasuke, kill Naruto now or Hinata dies."

Naruto and Sasuke looked at the man incredulously. Naruto's shock then melted into a look of worry as Hinata tried to pry off her sensei's strong arms around her neck. The whiskered boy didn't really care if he got hurt, but if Hinata did, he couldn't live with himself.

"That's what happens on a mission." Kakashi explained as he let go of Hinata and removed the weapon from her throat. Both she and Naruto sighed in relief. He stood up and began twirling the kunai on a finger. "The enemy takes a hostage and you've got an impossible choice. And someone ends up dead…" He then gripped the kunai and stuffed it back into his weapons pouch.

Naruto watched with weary eyes as their sensei began to walk away from them. "One every mission your life is on the line." He suddenly stopped at a stone and put his hands in his pockets. "Did any of you look at this stone? The names engraved on it?" The trio looked at the oddly shaped stone and saw the scribbles written on it. "They are all ninja who are honored as heroes in our village."

Naruto looked at the stone and smiled brightly. People had their names put on stones if you did something hero-like in Konohagakure?! Naruto need this sort of thing to help him become Hokage and he just hit the jackpot.

"That's it! That's it! That's it! Now I know!" Naruto grinned with his famous closed-eyed expression. "I've decided I'm gonna have my name engraved on that stone! I'm not gonna live and die for nothing like a dog! I'm gonna be a hero! A hero!"

Kakashi turned a little to look back at the hyperactive boy. "They are… a special kind of hero."

"Huh?" Naruto tilted his head in confusion. "What kind of heroes are they? C'mon, tell us!"

Kakashi went silent for a few moments as he paid his attention back to the stone. Naruto suddenly grinned and leaned forward in anticipation. "Well?! Well?!" The boy probed the man.

"They're all… K.I.A…" He finally answered. Naruto's eyes widened in surprise as he "oohed".

"That sounds real cool!" He said with his eyes smiling.

Hinata looked at the blonde preteen with her eyes drooping with sadness. "N-Naruto-kun… K.I.A. means _Killed In Action_… Th-They all died…"

Naruto felt himself jerk back in surprise and look down solemnly. Now he wished he hadn't said those words. He must've sounded like a real idiot for thinking being _Killed In Action_ was cool.

Sasuke narrowed his black onyx eyes and peered at the stones closely. It had many names, he recognized. _So many shinobi must have fallen in battles…_

"This is a memorial stone;" Kakashi continued to explain, "the names of my closest friends are engraved here…"

Hinata looked down for a bit and lifted her head up to look at her sensei with sadness shining clear in her lavender-tinged eyes. Sasuke looked at him with a glare, but this one was much softer than his usual hard stares. And Naruto just gritted his teeth as he looked in another direction with guilt flickering in his cerulean eyes.

Kakashi took in a silent breath and readdressed his students. "Alright, enough sap. I'll give you 3 hours to try and defeat me, and remember that Naruto, by no means, get lunch." The white-haired man suddenly glared at the trio with piercing eyes. "And if anyone tries to feed him, that person will immediately fail."

Naruto cringed with sweat dripping down his face as mouth went agape. So he couldn't eat lunch at all even if one of his teammates shares their food?! Oh man, he knew he should have eaten breakfast this morning…

"Well, see ya." The man gave them an eye smile and poofed out of existence.

…

Naruto watched painfully as Hinata and Sasuke ate in front of him. He felt his mouth starting drool at the yummy food his two teammates were eating. Hinata was eating her rice gracefully, as she left no tidbits of food reminisce on her face or clothes. Sasuke was bushing eating his sushi with silent chews as he stared into space.

_Aw man, I really wish I had eaten breakfast… Damn, Kakashi-sensei!_ Naruto felt his stomach growl loudly and the hungry boy hung his head with shame and hunger.

He suddenly snapped his head up and started to thrash around in his tied prison. "This is no big deal, I can go without eating for days, for weeks 'ttebayo! This is no big deal!" His stomach played its hungry tune once more, making Naruto hang his head again in despair. "N-No problem…" He said softly.

Hinata couldn't bear to see her crush suffering, even if he was punished by their teacher. She quickly looked around for the higher-up ninja and knee-walked over to the whiskered boy. She scooped up some rice with her chopsticks and brought it to Naruto's mouth.

Naruto felt something warm poke his mouth and he looked down to see Hinata probing him with some food. He looked at her with surprise. She was giving him her food?! He recalled about what their teacher had told them.

"Wh-What, y-you're giving me food?! No Hinata-chan, you can't do that! You heard what he said!" Naruto admonished her. He tried to move his mouth away, but Hinata had managed to slip some rice into his mouth.

She smiled at him gently with her cheeks a rosy red color. "Kakashi-sensei is gone, N-Naruto-kun. W-We need to get those bells a-as a team so you n-need to be at full strength in order to d-do so."

"She's right." Naruto craned his neck to look at the last Uchiha. The boy was looking at the ground with calculating eyes as he thrusted his lunch out to the ponytailed boy. "If you're hungry you'll be weak and ineffective. That hurts the team and jeopardizes the mission."

Hinata knew that it was another way of saying that they needed him, but she thought that there could have been a nicer way in saying that. She picked up an egg with her chopsticks and poked in against her crush's mouth.

"Please e-eat Naruto-kun." Hinata begged him softly.

Naruto was about to protest but stopped immediately once he saw Hinata's face. She had a cute blush that stained her cheeks as her eyes sparkled with anticipation. She had a small gentle smile that stretched across her lips as her eyebrows were tilted slightly down because of her shy demeanor. And he saw her body slightly shake from her staying in this position for a while, signaling the boy that she was getting embarrassed by each passing second. And he saw some strands of hair separate from the others and framed her face, making her look cuter than ever.

Naruto felt his tanned whiskered cheeks heat up as he started to grumble begrudgingly. "O-Okay Hinata-chan…" He said in defeat. He knew he couldn't reject her; she was just too… cute.

_Damn Ayame!_ Naruto screamed in mind. Kurama was just laughing his fuzzy butt off in Naruto's subconscious. Naruto opened his mouth and Hinata started to feed him. He had to admit that the food was good, especially since he was hungry, but he still preferred ramen over this.

All of a sudden, a giant explode of white suddenly filled the training field. The trio held up their arms to protect them from the blast of wind that hurdled towards them.

"YOU!" Kakashi yelled at them as his head stuck out of the cloud of white while he glared at them with bloody murder. "You broke the rules. I hope you're ready for the punishment!" He suddenly made some seals and eerie black clouds instantly rolled in. Lighting began to crackle haphazardly, striking anything in its path of destruction.

"Any last words?" He asked them sinisterly. Sasuke growled at him, Hinata held her head in fear, completely discarding the food, and Naruto started to chatter is teeth together in despair.

"B-But you said…!" He stammered.

"Yes?" He tilted his head at the boy while he smiled manically at him.

Naruto growled and began to yell at the man with a large tick mark pulsating on his forehead. "You said there were 3 of us! That's what you said and that's why… Hinata and…"

"We're all on this squad and we're all in it together." Sasuke said taking up from Naruto's voice faltering.

Hinata looked between the two boys and paid her attention back to their sensei with her eyes looking very determined. "H-Hai! We gave our lunch to him because the 3 of us are one! A single t-team!"

Naruto looked at Hinata, then Sasuke, and back again. He then started to lash out at his sensei. "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! Dattebayo, that's right!"

Kakashi began to walk towards them with his still in the Rat seal. "The 3 of you are one? That's your excuse?!" The three Genin began to have a stand of with the single Jōnin.

Kakashi suddenly gave them an eye smile with his hands placed on his hips. "Hmm. You pass." He told them bluntly.

"Huh?" Naruto and Hinata said quizzically while Sasuke too was staring at the man with mild confusion. Kakashi leaned forward towards them.

"You pass." He repeated.

Hinata looked at the white-haired man skeptically. She felt herself recede back a few inches from the experienced ninja. "W-What do you m-mean Kakashi-s-sensei? H-How did we p-pass?"

The dark clouds slowly began to move away as the sun made its appearance once more. Kakashi sighed as he explained himself. "You're the 1st one to ever succeed. The others did exactly what I said and fell into every trap. They couldn't think for themselves." Kakashi stood up straight and stared at them blankly. "A ninja must see through deception. In the ninja world, those who break the rules are scum. That's… true. But," He suddenly looked up at the sky and started to stare off into space, "those who abandon their friends are worse than scum."

Hinata looked relived; Naruto was about to cry as his blue eyes started to water all of a sudden, while Sasuke gave a small smile that showed he was very satisfied.

"He's uhh… ya know… he's kinda cool…" Naruto said in a wobbly voice. He forced himself to hold back his tears, but it was extremely hard cause he wanted to desperately cry for joy.

"The exercise is over. Everyone passes. Squad 7 starts its first mission tomorrow!" Kakashi said as he gave them all a big thumbs up.

"H-Hai!" Hinata cheered softly as she began bouncing in her spot with excitement. She couldn't believe it… She was a ninja now, a kunoichi!

"I did it! I did it! I'm a ninja, dattebayo! Ninja! Ninja!" Naruto exclaimed happily as he started to move around in his roped bounds with a few tears sprinkling out of his eyes.

"Let's go home." Kakashi told them and he started to walk down the dirt path that led back to Konohagakure. Sasuke started to follow, but Hinata quickly cut Naruto's ropes and the two began to follow after their teammate and their _permanent_ Jōnin instructor.

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_Next time on The Evolution of Love: Konohamaru? Who's Konohamaru?_

* * *

**WHOOHOO! 15, 120 WORDS BABY! I FINALLY FINISHED THIS STORY! Yep yep yep! Ahh… I feel great. So dudes, I really hope you guys like it, I put my blood, sweat, and tears into this! (not soo much blood but the other stuff yeah…) And yes, I'M MAKING THE STORY ABOUT KONOHAMARU COME UP NEXT INSTEAD OF THE LAND OF WAVES MISSION! Hold your horses, jeez…**

**So please you guys, DO REVIEW (heh, that rhymes…) and I will see you bros and bras on the flip side! ^_^ If you have by any means, SNEEZED through this whole thing then GOD BLESS YOUR SNEEZEY FACE! OK, now I really will see ya dudes next time, PEACE!**


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